In the MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online there was a bug on Sunday on the mega servers for PC in Europe related to the guild merchant reset. This resulted in several million gold entering circulation. Players are excited and called for a rollback. We spoke with Zenimax about the incident.
We at MeinMMO conducted an interview with the German community manager of The Elder Scrolls Online, Kai Schober, in writing. The topic of the interview is the bug with the guild merchant reset on Sunday, August 18, on the European mega server for PC. This bug was dubbed “Black Sunday” by the ESO community.
Images, links, titles, subheadings, and everything surrounding the interview are set by us.
MeinMMO: To understand the situation first. The bug occurred on Sunday, at the time when the guild merchants are reset: What usually happens at that time?
Guild merchants in ESO are NPCs that can be hired by guilds in the game for one week to offer the goods of their members at a location in the game. To hire one, a bid in gold must be placed in advance during the week.
On Sunday, the bids are compared, and the highest bidder is awarded the contract; unsuccessful bidders receive their gold back into the guild treasury.
Depending on the location, these NPCs are more or less in demand. A merchant in Krempten (the capital of Elsweyr) is, for example, significantly more sought after than one at a crossroads in Steinfälle.
Why is it important for players to play ESO at that specific time and participate in this guild merchant reset?
In principle, players do not need to play at that exact time. It previously made sense for guild leaders to be logged in at the time of the switch so that they could quickly search for alternative merchants in case their guild was outbid. However, this requirement was eliminated with the multi-bidding introduced in Update 23 (Scalebreaker).
Unfortunately, the timing of the switch (on both PC servers – the console servers will get U23 next week) coincided with European prime time. Players were online for other reasons.
Server Had a Hiccup
What went wrong this Sunday?
The server could not handle the increased requests during a time when it was already heavily burdened and had a hiccup.
In the forums, it is mentioned that guilds have received “billions of gold” refunded. Is that correct or an exaggeration?
That is greatly exaggerated. The highest-priced merchants receive low double-digit million bids. These were sometimes refunded two or three times. Without knowing the exact numbers personally (because of gamescom), I estimate a triple-digit million amount of gold that was pumped into the game. To put that in perspective, established players often have a personal fortune of 10 million gold and up.
No Collapse of the Economic System
How serious is the problem from your point of view?
See above. In relation to the gold already in circulation, the influx was rather minor, by no means inflationary, and even less a collapse of the economic system.
Players called for a rollback of the servers – Was this considered at any point?
The progress of players in terms of gained experience, completed quests, found loot, and so on is more important than some additional gold.
Here is Kai Schober (center) seen during an appearance on Twitch.
What measures are planned to ensure that this problem does not occur again in the future?
We continuously monitor the load on our servers. Right now, we have temporarily disabled addon functions, such as retrieving guild history, as these further burden the guild system and thus the associated merchant system. This is a quick solution but not a permanent one.
We are also considering moving the timing of the merchant switch to another time because with multi-bidding, there is no longer a need for guild leaders to possibly get up in the middle of the night to check the success of their bids.
Further options are being discussed.
Zenimax is working to restore player trust
Some players complain that the fundamental issues with ESO run deeper, in the performance problems. Zenimax has already announced a comprehensive package on how they plan to solve these issues in the long term. It seems to be a constant source of conflict, for which you, as a community manager, have to act as a lightning rod. Do you say: I can’t wait until it’s all over?
It is often only a small but very vocal part of the community that creates a conflict out of this. The same is true again with the guild merchants.
It is always difficult to convey that such fundamental corrections, like performance improvements, are not something that can be resolved overnight with a single line of code. We have been working behind the scenes for quite some time on the improvements and finally informed the player base during QuakeCon. Generally, actions are of course always better than words, and we look forward to the moment when we can close this chapter and restore the community’s trust that has been rightly shaken.
In Anthem, the long-awaited Cataclysm has finally gone live. It even grows week by week and changes. After weeks on the PC test servers, players on PS4 and Xbox One can now participate in the event. But how is the content received that players have been waiting for so long?
What is the Cataclysm? The Cataclysm played a significant role in Anthem even before its release. These were meant to be world-changing catastrophes, which should make Anthem feel like a Netflix series: the maps were to be altered, areas devastated, or new parts added. Characters could have died or new characters could have been introduced.
Every week, the rewards that players can work towards change. Additionally, new areas on the Cataclysm map are regularly unlocked, which offer new puzzles and require different approaches.
After Diana’s Landing was added to the event map last week, players can now enjoy the event Castle Kelrik this week.
Reactions ranging from jubilation to frustration
What players are responding positively: In the Anthem subreddit, some freelancers write that they are having fun hunting for loot and trying out different builds for their characters again thanks to the Cataclysm. Anthem has received nine new weapons with the Cataclysm event, which bring unique abilities. Additionally, there’s an entirely new melee slot, for which players must also collect new loot.
An author from Forbes writes that the new event reminds him a bit of Diablo 3. Each round of the Cataclysm would be similar to the Nephalem Rifts. Additionally, players in Anthem not only acquire loot through enemies and the final boss but also through the crystal currency earned during the event. Redeeming this currency would be a little like the blood shard vendor Kadala in Diablo 3.
Does the new event in Anthem remind you of Diablo 3?
Why does the event feel like Diablo?
In Anthem, freelancers earn crystals, which they can then exchange for War Chests. These chests contain random loot.
In Diablo 3, players can exchange blood shards from Nephalem Rifts or goblins with Kadala. They can choose which slot they need gear for. However, what they receive is always random.
What is being criticized: Despite the positive mood, there are still some things players are complaining about. Technical problems seem to continue to be a nuisance. Freelancers report lags or crashes.
The loot system with the War Chests is also not well received by all players: The content of the chests is random and can also be for Javelins that the player does not even play.
Additionally, BioWare changes the contents of the chests at regular intervals. If freelancers want to collect all the new items, they have to play regularly and also rely on luck with the War Chests. How players will get the new items after the Cataclysm event is currently unclear. They hope that the gear will eventually be added as a normal drop in Anthem.
Some are also wondering whether BioWare can provide enough content even after the Cataclysm to keep players engaged. The Cataclysm event is supposed to last a total of eight weeks, of which the first two are intended as an “introduction”. What will come after that is still unclear.
Many Twitch viewers were quite surprised to see that the official account of Fortnite hosted a stream from its competitor CS:GO. They received a lot of mockery for this on Reddit.
What happened? The Fortnite Twitch channel regularly hosts well-known streamers while they play Fortnite. They did the same with World Champion Bugha, who has a large reach on Twitch.
During the Fortnite host, the professional switched games and replaced Epic’s Battle Royale with the competitor CS:GO.
The official Fortnite Twitch channel, with over 2 million followers, then showed a stream of CS:GO. The organizers apparently overlooked it.
Fortnite has to take a lot of mockery
How did the viewers react? On Reddit , the user “qwety9000” shared this moment and received over 6000 upvotes for it. In line with this, there was also a lot of mockery from users.
So “DankeyKang11” writes about the situation: “Finally, Epic hosts a stable competitive scene.” This caused many laughs and numerous users agreed with him.
“ezpzeli” writes ironically: “I mean, at least they support the competition. It’s just not Fortnite’s competition.”
How can such a mistake happen? Bugha has often been hosted by Epic, just like many other streamers. So this is not the first host.
The Fortnite hosts always run at fixed times. The organizers probably did not consider that Bugha would switch games, leading to a rather embarrassing situation for Epic at the end.
This bizarre picture was taken during the host. Source Reddit
At gamescom, the developers of Dual Universe (PC) provided our author Alexander Leitsch with an in-depth insight into the space MMO. Especially the freedoms in the game impressed him immensely.
Going into the appointment with Dual Universe at gamescom, I admittedly did not expect too much. The space MMO is still in an alpha phase, and some features are only on paper so far. Furthermore, frequent comparisons were made to Star Citizen and No Man’s Sky.
However, the two developers from Novaquark changed my opinion about the game within the 60 minutes. I am now really looking forward to the upcoming beta in 2020.
What is Dual Universe? Dual Universe is a sandbox MMO set in a space environment. Your task is to colonize worlds, and you do this together with thousands of other players.
Total freedom in mining materials and reshaping areas
Total freedom in building buildings, cities, and spaceships
A gathering of thousands of players, thanks to special server technology
No loading times between planets and flights in space
The list alone sounds impressive, but the implementation of it positively surprised me again. Many games promise freedom, but Dual Universe achieves Minecraft-levels.
The total freedom in the game
What were my first steps in Dual Universe? After starting the game, I found myself with my character on a planet a bit away from other possible player constructions.
My first steps involved using a device to mine materials, as I also know it from No Man’s Sky. However, I can dig infinitely long and deep. The developers told me:
If you dig long enough, you will come out on the other side of the planet. However, it would take days. But there will certainly be players who will try this.
Admittedly, this idea intrigues me a bit, but unfortunately, the demo was very time-limited. So I used the remaining minutes to familiarize myself with the materials.
What materials are there? Besides the normal rock that I first mined at the surface, there is much to discover in deeper layers.
Eventually, I would encounter iron, silicon, and many other raw materials. The concept and implementation remind me a lot of Minecraft, even if I don’t need a new pickaxe every time.
However, rare materials also take significantly longer to mine. The developers suggest that it might be smarter to gather a lot of cheap material rather than a little expensive one. After all, much in Dual Universe revolves around the economy.
Which brings us to a central element of the game: Dual Universe is a sandbox game. I choose my tasks myself:
I can collect materials and sell them to other players.
I can become a city builder and design buildings.
I can build my own spaceships.
I can scout for materials and even create geological maps that I then leave to other players – for a lot of money of course.
I can colonize new planets.
This maximum flexibility is exciting, but many other MMOs also offer a lot. But then the developers started showing me their building tools and technologies, and from that moment I was captivated.
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How does building work in Dual Universe? In the space MMO, I can model the world with simple tools. By clicking the mouse, I create blocks that can be edited in size and shape.
Then I can hollow them out from the inside and cut holes into them. This is how the first buildings are created. The developers tell me that none of the buildings shown were built by them:
Everything in the demo is created by other players, whether spaceships, factories, or massive buildings.
And yes, spaceships are also built independently. I did not get to experience this because manufacturing engines, organizing fuel, and similar tasks are very cumbersome.
How realistic are the constructed contents? The developers have worked very realistically in Dual Universe for my understanding. There are different engines for flying in the atmosphere or for flights to other planets.
There are also different raw materials for refueling. Weight must also be taken into account. All of this, in turn, increases consumption.
Building a spaceship will therefore not be easy, and flying has to be learned first. If you fly incorrectly into the atmosphere, it may happen that your ship burns up.
What crazy things can you build in Dual Universe? The sandbox game relies on a system of switches and energy, so you can also create fully automatic productions.
In the demo, the developers showed me a factory that first produces pig iron bars and then processes them into gears. The gears, in turn, are further developed into engines with other materials.
However, PvP is supposed to play an important role in Dual Universe. The focus should not only be on combat but also on strategic elements such as resource stealing.
What is my impression of Dual Universe? 60 minutes are far too little to give a complete conclusion about a game that is currently in alpha.
However, many systems, especially around the construction of buildings and spaceships, impressed me. There were spaceships with wings and ones without. Depending on how you build the ship, it goes further or flies easier because it is more stable in the air.
The developers work with a lot of realism and many details. You can see this in the graphics as well. As I take off with the ship, the built village disappears slowly but is still recognizable from several kilometers high.
I have played a lot of No Man’s Sky recently, and some things in Dual Universe felt familiar. However, while I follow my story quite clearly at least in the early times in NMS, Dual Universe is completely open and relies on me to set goals myself.
At this point, I cannot say whether Dual Universe will be successful. In any case, it has many good ideas, and I will keep an eye on it. After all, I want to build one or the other spaceship from Star Wars!
Can you really mine everything? I had some concerns about the idea that players can actually change everything in the world. However, the developers confirmed this:
Theoretically, they could mine the entire moon over there, and it would be lost forever. However, we believe that players will commit themselves to keeping certain things in their place.
However, there are some exceptions. Players can claim certain land masses and build on them. Then only they and chosen friends are allowed to work on the area.
However, in certain PvP zones, it may happen that you lose your land. Galactic wars are not excluded.
PvP in many, but not all areas
How does PvP in Dual Universe work? Although the first players have already built ships with weapons, there are still not large space battles, as the developers admitted:
The ship over there belongs to our best community builder. Do you see the weapons? He wants to draw our attention that we are finally making progress in this area.
We still do not have functioning weapons in the game.
However, PvP is supposed to play an important role in Dual Universe. The focus should not only be on combat but also on strategic elements such as resource stealing.
What is my impression of Dual Universe? 60 minutes are far too little to give a complete conclusion about a game that is currently in alpha.
However, many systems, especially around the construction of buildings and spaceships, impressed me. There were spaceships with wings and ones without. Depending on how you build the ship, it goes further or flies easier because it is more stable in the air.
The developers work with a lot of realism and many details. You can see this in the graphics as well. As I take off with the ship, the built village disappears slowly but is still recognizable from several kilometers high.
I have played a lot of No Man’s Sky recently, and some things in Dual Universe felt familiar. However, while I follow my story quite clearly at least in the early times in NMS, Dual Universe is completely open and relies on me to set goals myself.
At this point, I cannot say whether Dual Universe will be successful. In any case, it has many good ideas, and I will keep an eye on it. After all, I want to build one or the other spaceship from Star Wars!
In Pokémon GO the Water Festival is approaching, and accordingly, 8 quests have been found that you can solve there.
What is the Water Festival? This event centered around Water Pokémon starts this Friday, on August 23rd at 10 PM. It will end on August 30th.
During the event, there are 2 new Shinies, new raid bosses, and special field research tasks. These have now been found by data miner Chrales.
The possible quests for the Water Festival
What did the data miner find? A total of 8 tasks related to Water Pokémon and other areas have been found. They are not officially confirmed, so one should approach this with caution:
Earn a candy by walking with your buddy
Catch X Water Pokémon (easy)
Catch X Water Pokémon (hard)
Evolve X Carvanha or Barboach
Hatch X Eggs
Win X Raids
Defeat a Team GO Rocket Grunt
Take X photos of Water Pokémon
What are special quests? A field research task has been found for the first time that is related to Team Rocket. It remains to be seen whether the reward for a battle is worth it or if you can dispose of the quest without concern.
Team Rocket could play a role in the Water Festival
Additionally, the task with the photo is interesting. Such challenges were otherwise mostly in special research and not in regular quests.
Is anything known about the rewards? Nothing is known about this yet. You will probably have to wait until the event starts. However, as usual, we at MeinMMO will inform you about the rewards.
What else does the Water Festival offer? The list of rewards is long. For the first time, there will be Shiny Barboach and Carvanha. Additionally, special raid bosses will be found in the gyms.
A highlight will also be the raid hour with Mesprit, which takes place next Wednesday.
Data miner Chrales has also found many other details in the new update, including an evolution item:
During gamescom 2019, we will talk about the MMORPG Astellia in today’s livestream. We will discuss the key facts that you need to know about this theme park MMO.
What kind of stream is this? We are covering the gamescom 2019 with our live program “gamescom together”. During the various slots, we will talk with experts or developers about the latest games and announcements. Today’s program also covers the new MMORPG Astellia.
When does the stream run? Today, starting at 4:00 PM, the gamescom magazine will be live on stream. Astellia will have a time slot within this one-hour program.
In the stream, we will introduce you to the game and its contents in more detail. What is the situation with Buy-2-Play and what do you need to know about the classes? Find out in the stream.
What is gamescom together? This year we will be present at gamescom itself with a booth and are putting together a large live show. We warmly invite you to be a part of our program “gamescom together”.
We want to celebrate gamescom 2019 together with you, all our brands, our friends, partners, and companions. That’s why we are joining forces with Gamestar.de and Gamepro.de to create the ultimate show for gamers.
Under the hashtag #gctogether, we will keep you updated on our social media platforms. You can also use the hashtag to share your experiences at gamescom. More information about our show program can be found in the following post:
Kingdom Under Fire 2 has a release date in Europe. However, only for PC. What about the versions for PS4 and Xbox One?
What is Kingdom Under Fire 2? It is an MMO-RTS where three factions fight for dominance over the land of Bersia. You create a hero and decide whether to fight on the side of the
KuF2 for PC “perfected” – now looking at new platforms
When will the game be released? Kingdom Under Fire 2 will be launched in November for PC. An exact date will be announced later. The MMO-RTS is published by Gameforge.
What about the version for Xbox One and PS4? In an interview, Jubo Kim, Creative Director of Kingdom Under Fire 2, and Jonghwan Lee, Chief Product Manager, explained that the PC version of the game is now in a stable state (he even calls it perfect) and they can now focus on other platforms.
The developers have not yet announced a date for a release on PS4 or Xbox One. However, a PS4 version was already announced in 2013. The developers stated in 2017 that they do not want to release the title for Xbox One.
However, since they are now talking about other platforms in the plural, an Xbox version might still be in the works.
Regarding the purchase of additional items, the developers are currently discussing with Gameforge what could be offered in the in-game shop.
New content is a priority
What about future content? New classes have already been announced, such as
Paladin
Dark Sorceress
Vampire Prince
According to the developers, these are still in development. However, the optimization of the main game is the priority – the reputation system still needs refinement, which has received a lot of feedback from testers. Then the team will focus on new content and will talk about it as soon as they are ready.
Is there going to be an improvement in graphics? Although Kingdom Under Fire 2 still looks very good, the game was announced eleven years ago!
However, the studio is currently not planning any improvements to the visuals, but wants to focus fully on content first. Additionally, many improvements have been made compared to the discontinued Russian version, which took considerable time.
Blizzard has issued a warning. Anyone looking to create new characters in WoW Classic should urgently choose a different realm. Some servers in WoW Classic are now so full that players may not even be able to enter the queue.
Update 22.08. 16:45: There is now the warning also for Everlook and Lucifron – the two German servers. Players are urged to seriously consider a realm change, otherwise, they will have to endure several hours of wait time.
Original message: Since the name reservation for World of Warcraft Classic became available, the Classic realms have been flooded by players. Many realms reached the “Full” status in a very short time, and Blizzard even had to open new realms to meet the players’ demand. However, this apparently was not enough, as Blizzard has now issued a warning. There might even be too many players for the queue.
Even the queue is overcrowded: In the US forum, Blizzard has urgently warned players against creating characters that are based on “full” servers. Special warnings were issued for the US realms Herod, Faerlina, and Whitemane.
These servers are so overcrowded that one likely would not even get into the queue. This means that when logging into the game, you do not reach the queue, but simply receive an error message or get thrown back to the server list.
What should players do? The developers recommend players to seriously consider moving to a different realm. So far, many players are still reluctant to change realms, as they had initially committed to one of the few available realms with their friends.
It is strongly recommended to discuss again with friends and choose a less crowded realm. For the American realms, Bornakk even mentioned “several hours wait time just to get through”.
What is the situation with WoW Classic in Germany?
New European realms are unpopular: Even several days after Blizzard opened the two new German realms Razorfen (Normal) and Venoxis (PvP), these two realms are still at “low” occupancy.
Even here, players do not really seem to be considering a realm change. However, that would be helpful if one wants to have an enjoyable gaming experience at launch.
The German realms are extremely unbalanced. The same problem is threatening here as in America.
Will you choose a different realm again? Or will you stay with your friends at the first choice and “ride it out” in the hope that the influx will decrease soon?
Today, the MMORPG Black Desert Online launched on the Playstation 4. We will tell you everything you should know about the launch: What servers are available? Which classes does Black Desert start with? How do you start the download?
What can you expect in Black Desert? The MMORPG immerses you in a beautiful sandbox world. There, you can embark on adventures or participate in the player-driven economy. Large battles and PvP also play a role.
Now, alongside PC and Xbox One owners, PS4 gamers can join in.
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What about the servers? Black Desert Online had a region lock during the beta. You couldn’t play with players from the USA. In the release version, you can now choose between EU and NA servers.
Black Desert on PS4 – Download and Costs
What editions are available? You can choose between three editions of BDO on PS4, which offer different bonuses. You can find them in the Black Desert Shop.
The Standard Edition for 29.99 Euros
Base game
Advantage package 30 days
Pearl package (1,000 pearls)
Companion: Snow Wolf Dog
The Deluxe Edition for 49.99 Euros
Base game
Advantage package 60 days
Pearl package (2,000 pearls)
Companion: Snow Wolf Dog
Horse (Rank 3)
Horse gear: Calpheon Stormer
The Ultimate Edition for 99.99 Euros
Base game
Advantage package 90 days
Pearl package (3,000 pearls)
Companion: Snow Wolf Dog
Horse (Rank 5)
Horse gear: Calpheon Stormer
Cart set: Belle Époque
Companion: Junaid Cat
Special basic equipment set
Mount flute (permanent)
1 x Storage Maid
Scroll: Combat/Work/Talent XP (10x each)
Additionally, you should know
How much storage space does the MMORPG require? You need around 40 GB of disk space to install Black Desert Online.
Is a PSN membership required? Yes, since Black Desert is an online game, you need an active PSN membership.
How is the game funded? After purchasing the game, you can play BDO on the Playstation 4 without restrictions. You do not need to subscribe.
However, it is optional to purchase items in the in-game shop. These include costumes, cosmetic adjustments for your character, bank slots, a larger inventory, and some items that grant you certain advantages, which is why Black Desert Online often faces the Pay2Win accusation.
How was the beta of the MMORPG received? Many players participated in the beta of Black Desert. Criticism was aimed at the performance, as some testers couldn’t even reach 30 FPS, and the region lock, which prevented playing with overseas players. However, this has now been removed.
With the help of an artifact, it is possible to infinitely increase the power. Consequently, a “max level” no longer exists.
In an interview with gamesradar, the Creative Lead of Shadowkeep, Ben Wommack, reveals more details about this innovation.
Time is the Limit
This is what Wommack says: According to Wommack, artifacts have no limit to how much power they can grant your Guardian. However, the higher you level up the artifact, the more XP is required to continue leveling up. Therefore, the power level progression will become slower and more time-consuming.
Bungie is curious to see how far the Guardians will go.
This is the limit: The only limit to power level progress is time. Because the artifact is a seasonal item that will be replaced after a season.
Wommack explains: “At the end of the Season of the Undying, the seasonal artifact, the “Eye of the Gate Lord”, will disappear. Then you will receive another artifact in the next season, which you will work on.”
According to Wommack, you will start again in the next season with the “unlimited” power level progression, but you will fall back to 960 power.
The soft cap is at 900. This means every loot drop brings you up to 900.
Another cap is at 950. You can reach up to 950 with every powerful reward.
And through pinnacle activities like the raid, you can even go up to a maximum of 960 power level. 960 is the highest power level at which loot can drop.
With the artifact, you can exceed 960. According to Bungie, you can use the artifact to “overcome impossible challenges”.
In the end, it is time that sets limits on your unlimited power progression. After 3 months, you will be reset to 960, then climbing the power level again with a new artifact that is also supposed to provide new benefits.
The first raid of Fallout 76 is said to be a major challenge, but the rewards apparently leave much to be desired…
Players expect useful rewards: Those who dive into the Raid Vault 94 in Fallout 76 expect corresponding rewards, which are usually quite good. For example, you can find
legendary items with three stars
improved repair kits
legendary scrips
crafting materials for the Vault armor
and items like weapons, armor, and plans
This drill was the reward for one player from the Raid Vault 94.
A “special” loot
What is the problem? The rewards are, of course, distributed randomly. This is what makes the raid exciting. You don’t know what is waiting at the end of Vault 94 in the chest.
What happened to one player? Kaelynath jumped into the raid with his team and managed – without the power armor bug – to defeat the boss at the end. When the group opened the treasure chest to claim the loot, Kaelynath was taken aback.
He received a drill. A simple, basically useless drill. His teammates, on the other hand, were happy with legendary 3-star items.
This is frustrating: The raid is designed by Bethesda for players level 50 and above. They naturally want corresponding items with which they can do something.
The raid also consumes many resources of the players because they fight against wave after wave of enemies. At the end, one naturally expects something “big”.
The “Drill of Howard” was sold for 10,000 caps.
Something good came out of it
What is interesting about it? This problem has occurred before. Drills drop relatively often from particularly powerful enemies. It has become something of a running gag.
The fact that drills now appear as “rewards” for the raid is perceived by many as a bad joke. After all, they complete the tasks to find something useful.
How do players react to it? While the Fallout 76 community sympathizes with Kaelynath, they also find the situation somewhat amusing. The found drill has even been named “Rod of Howard” in honor of Bethesda’s Game Director Todd Howard. The Fallout 76 community voted on Reddit for the new name.
Why it ended well: In the end, Kaelynath still got something out of it. He was able to sell the drill for 10,000 caps. A player who was following the situation and also heard about the “renaming” offered this high amount because he is a collector of such quirky things.
In Pokémon GO, the update 0.153.0 is being rolled out. There are some new features regarding Generation 5, as well as a ranking system for players.
This update is about: It is update 0.153.0, which is currently being released. It may take a few more days before Niantic is finished.
Especially iOS users will have to be a bit patient. However, it should be available everywhere by the end of the week.
These are the news brought by update 0.153.0
A new item has been found: Dataminer Chrales shows the Unova Stone, which is supposed to function as an evolution item. Which Pokémon it is supposed to evolve is not yet known.
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It could probably be compared to the Sinnoh Stone, but this item allowed Pokémon from other generations to evolve into Pokémon from Generation 4. There is no such case in Gen 5. All Pokémon from the Unova region have no pre-evolutions from other generations.
New Pokémon added: According to Chrales, the complete PokéDex of Generation 5 has been added. It seems to be the first step towards the release, which will begin in September.
New Shadow Pokémon found: The shadow version of Pinsir has also been found in the update. They may be coming to the game soon.
A ranking system for Pokémon GO: According to the dataminer, Pokémon GO will also receive a ranking system. This could list players by achievements and a kind of competition could emerge.
Revisions in the Buddy System: The Buddy System seems to be getting a revision. Chrales speaks here of emotions, feeding, and encounters. What exactly is coming our way remains to be seen.
2 new items have been found: In addition to the evolution item, Chrales found two more items that could soon come to the game.
First, the VS Seeker upgrade was found. This item already existed in console games (there under the name Battle Finder). It sent a message to trainers who had lost against a player. Players who wanted a rematch could make themselves known.
This is what the VS Seeker looked like in the console games. Source: Pokéwiki
The 2nd item is the Route Marker. Here, many trainers think of a feature from the Niantic game Ingress. There, there is a similar item that allows players to draw a route in the game. Other players can then see and follow it.
What do all these findings mean? Just because these things have been found in the update, it does not mean that they will be implemented in the game right away. Niantic has merely added them and can activate them for all players at any time.
What is your highlight from the update? What are you looking forward to the most?
For those new to World of Warcraft Classic, there is a lot that can go wrong. To get the basics right, we have here five small points for you to consider.
In less than a week, World of Warcraft Classic will launch, allowing hundreds of thousands of players to experience Azeroth in its original form again. To ensure that your entry does not end in disaster, we have a handful of tips for you that you should take to heart right from the start. This will make the start in the world of Classic much easier.
1.
Only buy the abilities and spells you really need
In Classic, you are more or less forced to visit the teacher for your class every few levels. This is primarily because spells and abilities had different ranks and thus had to be purchased individually. Because if you are trying to deal damage with a “Rank 1 Fireball” at level 30, you won’t get very far.
When leveling, don’t buy all the spells – it saves gold, which you will collect faster later on.
However, the problem is that the costs of buying abilities and spells quickly escalate. Later, it costs several gold pieces to improve a single spell. That is all gold that will be missing later for your mount at level 40 and your epic mount at level 60.
During the leveling phase, you should mainly buy spells and abilities that you really need and that make you more effective in your respective role. If the next skill has no impact on your damage dealt, then it can stay with the teacher for a while longer.
So: Always buy abilities that make you more effective, but be hesitant with other abilities. Later, when you have a mount, you can earn the necessary gold much faster.
If you don’t want to run to the bank and thus to a capital city or the auction house every hour, you need to regularly clean out your bags and get rid of junk. To have more space in your inventory, you might even sell an item or two that could have earned more gold at the auction house. But that doesn’t have to be the case.
A small bank alt saves time, money, and inventory space.
It’s worth declaring at least one character early on as a “bank alt”. This character is best located in a city near a bank and an auction house. When your main character has full bags, you simply send items to the bank character via mail. Then you log out and store resources for later in the bank or sell useful items at the auction house. This only takes a few minutes and saves a lot of time.
Otherwise, you would have to travel back to the city with your main character, which is quite a journey, and pay the costs for the flight master. That would be another gold that would be missing for acquiring a mount.
3. Kill more enemies than necessary
If you have played other MMORPGs in the last few years, it was – especially in theme park MMOs – usually the case that there were numerous quests that were all interconnected. In the Classic version of World of Warcraft, that is not the case. Although most areas have several dozen quests, these are often just motivators. They are meant to lead players on the right path and show them places they may not have been to yet.
Killing more enemies than necessary is worthwhile. It brings gold and you don’t have to worry about running out of quests.
But one truth of Classic is: Killing enemies gives significantly more experience points than turning in quests.
This means you should spend much more time in most areas than the quests require of you. Even after completing a mission, you should often spend 10, 20, or 30 minutes just killing a few more enemies.
This grind not only increases the experience points gained, but also your gold count. Most of the gold earned in Classic came not from simply finishing quests, but from looting enemies.
Those who stay longer in areas and kill more enemies than necessary are not at risk of running out of quests at the end or running out of gold.
So if you find an area where you can farm enemies particularly easily with your class, then stay there – your gold and XP count will thank you.
4. Be hesitant in the auction house
For many players, it is tempting to buy a weapon in the auction house when their own is already a few levels too low. What are a couple of gold pieces for a new weapon, when you get a really great weapon for it?
Spending a lot of money in the auction house? In Classic, you should wait with that.
The truth is: A lot. Even though leveling in WoW Classic takes significantly longer than in the retail version of the game, you progress relatively quickly, especially below level 40. After just a few hours, you may no longer need the newly purchased weapon and regret spending gold on it. Especially when you realize that these are now more gold coins missing for a mount.
Additionally, WoW Classic starts equally for all players. If you find a great item that you want to sell, it may not yet find a buyer in the first weeks – after all, very few players will have much gold right now. So be patient and use the auction house wisely to benefit from it and not to distract you from important goals.
If you want a mount, you have to save early. In Classic, that was really expensive.
5.
Treat yourself to good food
After just a few enemies in Classic, many players will find that their character’s health or mana plummets dangerously low. While automatic regeneration is present in Classic, it is extremely low. To avoid long waiting times between individual fights, you should always have a few stacks of the best food for your level with you. Instead of sitting on the ground for 30 seconds, you might only need 5-10 seconds.
Knowing a mage can be worthwhile. Solely because of the abundant food!
Therefore, it also pays to know a mage friend who can supply you with food for free. If he is not nearby, you should always prepare at the inn.
Nothing is more frustrating than arriving at your desired farming area after a long journey, only to realize that you have to turn back after 3 enemies because you have no means of regeneration.
Last year, Epic Games with its Fortnite booth was the attraction at gamescom. How does the presence of the popular online shooter look at gamescom 2019? Unfortunately, not very good.
The Fortnite booth at gamescom 2018: Last year, Epic Games rocked gamescom with Fortnite. The booth was a major attraction. Epic came up with an “Offline Battlepass” specially for the fair in Cologne.
Players could do things in real life that they usually do in Fortnite, like:
What’s it like in 2019? If you’re looking for a Fortnite booth at gamescom 2019, you’ll be disappointed. Although the game will be played at some booths, there is no proper Fortnite booth.
This is what it looks like this year at the Epic booth. Simple, the focus is on the Unreal Engine. (Photo: Sven Galitzki/MeinMMO)
Epic Games does have a booth at the fair in Hall 7 – but it’s not about Fortnite, it’s about the Unreal Engine. Here, Indie games are mainly promoted.
Epic now organizes events for Fortnite itself
What’s behind this? Fortnite held its own world championship a few weeks ago and pulled it off with a multi-day program. Fortnite also skipped E3 2019 and instead organized its own “party weekend” on the sidelines of the event when everyone was already in LA:
It seems that Epic used gamescom 2018 to establish and promote the brand.
In 2019, they are not relying on the public gamescom, but are investing their money in their own events and activities.
He tweeted that he simply cannot understand why Fortnite even introduced the mechs into the game. He had prepared for a whole game and then everything was destroyed by 3 mechs.
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Shortly after, he made it clear again how frustrated he is. He says on stream with Tim: “It just doesn’t make sense, man. It doesn’t make sense. I’ve talked to so many people at Epic about so many things and they were so exciting to me. And then they do this, bro. There is no enriching part of this, dude. I don’t know anyone who likes the things. It makes me angry, dude.”
CouRage quits the game: After getting so upset about the state of the mechs in Fortnite, he quits the game. He tells his teammate Tim that he feels sorry but he can’t continue playing. Afterwards, he turned to Minecraft and played there.
On Twitter, eSports commentator and Overwatch analyst MonteCristo tells him that CouRage should not continue streaming Fortnite. That would be the clearest sign he and other streamers can give to Epic Games to have the mechs removed.
CouRage replies that his YouTube channel is switching to Minecraft lately and that he hasn’t played Fortnite for more than a week: “I jumped into Twitch Rivals because I wanted to play with Tim, Lupo, and Jordan. But it’s really scary how bad it is.”
Fortnite, which places a lot of value on building in the endgame, completely changed the game by adding mechs. The large builds of players are simply mowed down by the robots and their rocket salvos. Players made it clear that something needs to change – they made the hashtag #RemoveTheMech trend on Twitter, forcing Fortnite to nerf.
As Polygon reports, the mechs are less of a problem in competitive modes. Epic Games drastically reduced the spawn rate in Arena and tournament modes. The kills with mechs would not be particularly significant there.
In the “normal” game, however, they are still a major problem.
Update: Fortnite has responded to the players’ wishes and made some adjustments to the mechs: This has now changed:
Update: Fortnite has responded to the players’ wishes and made some adjustments to the mechs: This has now changed:
He tweeted that he simply cannot understand why Fortnite even introduced the mechs into the game. He had prepared for a whole game and then everything was destroyed by 3 mechs.
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Shortly after, he made it clear again how frustrated he is. He says on stream with Tim: “It just doesn’t make sense, man. It doesn’t make sense. I’ve talked to so many people at Epic about so many things and they were so exciting to me. And then they do this, bro. There is no enriching part of this, dude. I don’t know anyone who likes the things. It makes me angry, dude.”
CouRage quits the game: After getting so upset about the state of the mechs in Fortnite, he quits the game. He tells his teammate Tim that he feels sorry but he can’t continue playing. Afterwards, he turned to Minecraft and played there.
On Twitter, eSports commentator and Overwatch analyst MonteCristo tells him that CouRage should not continue streaming Fortnite. That would be the clearest sign he and other streamers can give to Epic Games to have the mechs removed.
CouRage replies that his YouTube channel is switching to Minecraft lately and that he hasn’t played Fortnite for more than a week: “I jumped into Twitch Rivals because I wanted to play with Tim, Lupo, and Jordan. But it’s really scary how bad it is.”
Fortnite, which places a lot of value on building in the endgame, completely changed the game by adding mechs. The large builds of players are simply mowed down by the robots and their rocket salvos. Players made it clear that something needs to change – they made the hashtag #RemoveTheMech trend on Twitter, forcing Fortnite to nerf.
As Polygon reports, the mechs are less of a problem in competitive modes. Epic Games drastically reduced the spawn rate in Arena and tournament modes. The kills with mechs would not be particularly significant there.
In the “normal” game, however, they are still a major problem.
Update: Fortnite has responded to the players’ wishes and made some adjustments to the mechs: This has now changed:
The Twitch streamer Jack “Courage” Dunlop hosts important Fortnite events for Epic Games like the World Championship. However, he recently showed how upset he is about a gameplay decision. The mechs frustrated him so much that he quit everything in the middle of a $400,000 tournament.
What kind of tournament is this? The “Twitch Rivals” tournament is taking place in Fortnite, where well-known streamers participate. The game modes include Duo and Squads. There’s a prize pool of $400,000 at stake.
Who was playing? Some of the more recognizable faces among the tournament participants include TimTheTatman and CouRage. They played together in Duo when a situation arose that really upset CouRage.
Jack “CouRage” Dunlop is a commentator at the biggest Fortnite events. It’s significant that he is this frustrated now.
Here the streamer loses it
Why did the streamer get so upset? In a match, TimTheTatman and CouRage played together and tried to avoid the mechs in the game for as long as possible. Epic Games introduced the mechs at the start of the current Season X in the game – they are considered overpowered by players because they can destroy buildings and players in seconds.
While the two were hiding in a building, suddenly a few player-controlled mechs approached. They fired their rocket salvos, to which CouRage quickly fell victim.
He is frustrated, shouting on stream “Fuck the meeeeeeeechs” and banging his fists on the table. “Why the hell are they even here?”
Update: Fortnite has responded to the players’ wishes and made some adjustments to the mechs: This has now changed:
Update: Fortnite has responded to the players’ wishes and made some adjustments to the mechs: This has now changed:
He tweeted that he simply cannot understand why Fortnite even introduced the mechs into the game. He had prepared for a whole game and then everything was destroyed by 3 mechs.
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Shortly after, he made it clear again how frustrated he is. He says on stream with Tim: “It just doesn’t make sense, man. It doesn’t make sense. I’ve talked to so many people at Epic about so many things and they were so exciting to me. And then they do this, bro. There is no enriching part of this, dude. I don’t know anyone who likes the things. It makes me angry, dude.”
CouRage quits the game: After getting so upset about the state of the mechs in Fortnite, he quits the game. He tells his teammate Tim that he feels sorry but he can’t continue playing. Afterwards, he turned to Minecraft and played there.
On Twitter, eSports commentator and Overwatch analyst MonteCristo tells him that CouRage should not continue streaming Fortnite. That would be the clearest sign he and other streamers can give to Epic Games to have the mechs removed.
CouRage replies that his YouTube channel is switching to Minecraft lately and that he hasn’t played Fortnite for more than a week: “I jumped into Twitch Rivals because I wanted to play with Tim, Lupo, and Jordan. But it’s really scary how bad it is.”
Fortnite, which places a lot of value on building in the endgame, completely changed the game by adding mechs. The large builds of players are simply mowed down by the robots and their rocket salvos. Players made it clear that something needs to change – they made the hashtag #RemoveTheMech trend on Twitter, forcing Fortnite to nerf.
As Polygon reports, the mechs are less of a problem in competitive modes. Epic Games drastically reduced the spawn rate in Arena and tournament modes. The kills with mechs would not be particularly significant there.
In the “normal” game, however, they are still a major problem.
Update: Fortnite has responded to the players’ wishes and made some adjustments to the mechs: This has now changed:
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In FIFA 20, you can finally watch official gameplay with Bundesliga atmosphere. Here is a whole match featuring FC Bayern against BVB.
Where does the gameplay come from? Currently, the gamescom 2019 is underway, where event attendees are allowed to test a demo version of FIFA 20. Some major FIFA streamers and YouTubers have already been able to stream fresh gameplay material from gamescom earlier this week, although these mostly showed Premier League matches.
The German YouTube channel bPartGaming now finally presents juicy Bundesliga gameplay from FIFA 20. In the video, you can watch a match of FC Bayern Munich against Borussia Dortmund:
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The kick-off happens in the video at minute 3:00. If you only want to see if the ball runs smoothly in FIFA 20 or if there are new player animations on the field, you can jump directly here.
Goals are scored too: In the end, BVB wins 3:0. At minutes 7:03, 14:34, and 16:49, you can see the goals and subsequent celebration animations.
Impressions from bPartGaming: The video shares some insights about the gameplay:
There are new shooting animations that sometimes take quite a while. This makes Timed Finishing more challenging.
The manual tackling has improved. If you position yourself well to the ball and engage in a tackle, you are more likely to gain possession. Especially in FIFA 19, the ball often bounced to the opponent, which made duels frustrating.
The combination play is supposed to be better in FIFA 20 than in FIFA 19.
You can learn more insights in the embedded video.
The FIFA pro Cihan has already told us what he thinks of FIFA 20 so far:
What ratings do the players have? The ratings of the Bayern and BVB players are still those from FIFA 19. We are therefore not yet getting a glimpse of the new player ratings.
In Destiny 2, there are issues with the Steam transfer and the new cross-save feature. The launch was anything but smooth.
“Never play on Patch Day” is an old gamer wisdom that has often proven true for Destiny in the past. And in hindsight, many Guardians would have liked to have adhered to this on the day of the cross-save launch, as it went quite bumpy and was unsuccessful for most players.
This is what happened at the start of cross-save: Last night, on August 21st at 7 PM, the long-awaited cross-save for Destiny 2 was initiated.
However, in the forums, Guardians immediately reported in droves that something was wrong and the cross-save process was not functioning properly. Bungie promptly responded and announced on Twitter that maintenance for cross-save had to be conducted on Bungie.net. The feature is expected to start 2.5 hours later than announced.
After these 2.5 hours, Bungie tweeted again excitedly that the maintenance needed to be extended. There were numerous “500” error messages, and account authentication was problematic.
Around midnight our time, Weasel and Baboon errors were reported in Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 – this issue has since been resolved.
Just a few hours ago, the developers tweeted that the maintenance was now complete, but they were still chasing Olive errors and advised players to restart the Destiny 2 app to avoid potential issues.
Is everything working with cross-save now?
This is what the Guardians say: On Twitter and in the forums, there are mixed user reports. Some write that the cross-save link finally worked, while others report that it still doesn’t work for them.
These are the known issues: In the help forum, Bungie lists some problems they are still investigating in connection with cross-save:
“Something weird happened” – This error message is sometimes displayed when trying to activate cross-save.
There are issues with account authentication.
“500” errors occur on Bungie.net.
What is cross-save? Cross-save refers to the feature that allows you to share a save file between different platforms on which you play Destiny 2. We have a guide for cross-save here for you.
If you want to link your account to Steam, the “Confirm” button cannot be pressed on mobile devices.
The “Microsoft Edge” browser has issues during the linking process.
Not all content licenses for Destiny 2 are displayed.
This last issue caused a lot of commotion. Bungie writes that they received multiple reports that not all licenses are displayed correctly.
They assure, however, that all content licenses in your possession (i.e., purchased DLCs) will later be transferred to Steam. You can ignore the warning.
A Twitter user summarizes the current problems as follows: “And that’s the reason they are bringing cross-save a month before the release [of Shadowkeep]” – and Bungie agrees with him:
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The original developers of WoW take a look at Classic. They are nostalgic and share many anecdotes from 15 years ago.
In less than a week, the release of World of Warcraft Classic will finally take place. But before players can dive back into Azeroth, Blizzard gathered some of the original developers in one room and had them play together for a few hours. The result is quite heartwarming and shows how important the beginnings of World of Warcraft were to the developers as well.
Developers don’t take themselves too seriously: The entire post is full of nostalgia and also a lot of self-irony. For example, Alex Afrasiabi dramatically states: “You never forget what you added to a game first. You simply don’t forget it.”
Just one camera cut later, Tom Chilton says he absolutely no longer remembers what he did first back then.
At another point, a developer reveals that “it was all very passionate back then, so you could even compensate for the inexperience of some people” – while at the same moment a close-up of Jeff Kaplan is shown.
Back then, the developers had no plan: Especially Jeff Kaplan speaks quite openly about the fact that back then in development, there was no big plan on how everything should ultimately look. Sometimes, you just woke up in the morning, had an idea, and were so excited that you worked on it the whole day. Much of it happened intuitively back then, and the big picture only came together very late.
Or as Pat Nagle puts it:
They just wanted to create an MMORPG that they themselves wanted to play. And that’s exactly why I wanted to be part of it.
WoW Classic brings everyone “home”: In the end, Alex Afrasiabi once again takes the floor and compares playing WoW Classic again to the feeling of coming home after a long time. He says:
There’s something special about returning home. Such things happen very rarely in our lives. It’s something very special. WoW Classic gives players the chance to return home.
Do you have a similarly emotional attachment to World of Warcraft in its original form? Do you also feel like you are “home” again after a long time? Or do you feel completely differently?
During the gamescom 2019, we will discuss Kingdom Under Fire 2 in the livestream. We will show you what to expect in the stream.
What kind of stream is this? With our live program from gamescom together, we accompany the fair in Cologne via livestream. You can watch while we chat with developers and experts about trending games.
When will the stream take place? On Thursday, August 22, we will talk about the forgotten MMORPG Kingdom Under Fire 2 starting at 1:15 PM.
What will happen in the stream? Kingdom Under Fire 2 will be released in November 2019. It is referred to as the forgotten MMORPG because the title was announced back in 2008. Originally planned for PC and Xbox 360, it has not been released until now. But after 11 years, the MMORPG is now ready for its launch.
In the gameplay, MMO elements such as character development and build creation are mixed with real-time strategy. You can play your character or later even take command of an entire army. In the stream, we will take a look at the game and give you our assessment.
What is the gamescom together? This year, we will have a booth at the gamescom and put together a large live show. We warmly invite you to become part of our program “gamescom together”.
We want to celebrate gamescom 2019 together with all of you, all our brands, our friends, partners, and companions. Therefore, we are teaming up with Gamestar.de and Gamepro.de to create the ultimate show for gamers.
Under the hashtag #gctogether, we will keep you updated on our social media platforms. You can also use the hashtag to share your experiences at gamescom. More information about our show program can be found in the following post:
