In the fantasy MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online, it seems that the Crown Store is preparing for Halloween.
Data miners have taken the recent patch for the Hero’s Breast and examined it for clues about what the future may bring for The Elder Scrolls Online, especially in the Crown Store. This isn’t “certain” yet, it can all still change, but these are at least insights that have already made waves. So fans asked during ESO Live on Friday visibly excited whether Zenimax had now completely lost its mind and thrown the lore out the window.
The reason is this screen: a “Pumpkin” helm, which is clearly inspired by Halloween. This also fits with this “Scarecrow” costume.
And also the mounts all look quite Halloween-ish.
However, there are also some “more normal” costumes in the Crown Store:
There is no lack of companions:
Will purchasable werewolf and vampire bites come soon?
Also interesting, under “Consumables”, there are screens from the vampire and werewolf bites.
In the MMO shooter Destiny, some weapons are considered too strong, but why is that?
During the development stage of Destiny, a bug snuck into the Gjallarhorn, the cluster rockets left no trace and there wasn’t that colossal feedback like with the current Gjallarhorn. Testers didn’t say: “That looks funny, not as spectacular as before,” but rather: “The weapon is not strong enough.”
And that is typical, says Destiny’s gunsmith Sage Merrill in an interview with Game Informer. Because “overpowered” is a matter of the overall perception. As a designer, one should not trust the “cold mathematics,” the “damage per second” values of a weapon; it’s all about the players’ overall impression.
“I can make a weapon overpowered just by tweaking the sound,” Merrill says. “One day players say the weapon is useless, then I give it this powerful sniper shot effect and the next day players find it completely overpowered.”
It doesn’t matter how strong a weapon is mathematically, it’s about how it feels
It doesn’t matter whether a weapon is really balanced, Merrill says; what is important is only how it is perceived. One can design a weapon that is far too weak to feel like an absolute badass, like a killer gun, because it feels that way. Merrill thinks that if everyone believes the weapon is way too strong, then that too weak weapon also needs to be “balanced,” that is, nerfed.
If you play both Heroes of the Storm and Diablo 3, you should act quickly: For a limited time, there is a hero for free.
The Connection of Nexus and Sanctuary
Diablo 3 players can unlock a mount and Diablo himself in HotS.
We have already reported on this before, but from now on the rewards are live! If you have registered a version of Diablo 3 on your Battle.net account, you will receive the warrior Diablo for free in Heroes of the Storm. However, you should hurry, as this promotion lasts for only until September 8 at 7 PM. After that, the offer expires and the character must be purchased with gold or real money. So log in to Heroes of the Storm promptly to secure the Lord of Terror for free!
Additional Cross-Game Rewards
Show in Diablo 3 that you play Heroes of the Storm.
You can take a little more time for the other rewards available for each respective game. If you reach an account level of 12 in Heroes of the Storm, you can look forward to a new banner and a special portrait frame in Diablo 3. If you take the effort and play a seasonal hero at level 70 during season 4 in Diablo 3, you will also unlock the new Malthael’s Steed, which allows you to gallop through the Nexus.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
I wish you a pleasant Wednesday! It won’t be long until the new expansion “The Grand Tournament” for Hearthstone awaits us. What do I have to say about it? A lot. Because Blizzard decides to break one of the sacred laws of card games with some cards – or to use the English technical term: The Grand Tournament is a strong manifestation of power creep.
Same Costs, Better Stats
Exciting cards with unique effects are what makes Hearthstone great.
While it is quite commonplace in MMOs to trivialize existing content, make new content more exciting, and provide better rewards – after all, character levels often increase – this is a golden rule in card games that should not be broken. And that’s exactly what the art of creating good collectible card games is all about! If a minion in Hearthstone costs 4 mana and has stats of 4/5, then 2 things must be ensured:
There are no other creatures with the exact same combination (other than with additional effects).
No other creature may be stronger without disadvantage (higher costs, negative effect, random factors).
The reason for this is obvious: The weaker card would lose its right to exist. Exactly this mistake is being made by Blizzard now.
The Two Worst Cards in the Game
Specifically, power creep applies to 2 cards. The newcomer with The Grand Tournament is the Evil Heckler. It offers 5/4 stats for 4 mana and simultaneously taunt. Veterans will be amazed. These are the same stats as those of the Goblin Bodyguard – but 1 mana cheaper.
The same applies to the Ice Rager: For 3 mana it is quite strong with 5/2, but significantly better than the old Magma Rager – which has exactly one less health point for the same cost.
“But they were hardly played…”
It is true that Magma Rager and the Goblin Bodyguard were rather rare occurrences in ranked games, many would even consider them “unplayable”. But can it then be the right step to leave these cards weak and simply introduce new, stronger ones? Why not just balance the game instead of bringing in new cards that completely make the old ones obsolete?
I repeat myself once more: The art in such a card game is to create exciting innovations with limited resources such as mana cost, attack power, health points, and card texts, without completely devaluing the old cards. This is exactly what Blizzard has failed to do this time, and to put it bluntly, it is a sign of lack of ideas. I find it incredibly difficult to understand what they were thinking by introducing these two cards.
What is your opinion on the topic? Do you agree with me or is it not that bad because you hardly ever see the two old cards anyway?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Since yesterday the various Founder’s Packs of Blade & Soul can be purchased. What they bring aside from beta access, we will tell you here.
Three Packs, Three Price Ranges
The so-called Founder’s Packs are not really a novelty in Free2Play titles. As with countless games before, you can also choose from several at Blade & Soul. But what exactly do the founder packs contain, and are they worth the money?
The Candidate Pack grants access to all beta events for €22.50, three days of early access to the game, two special character titles, and 20,800 premium points. The points are useless on their own, but if you decide to later purchase a premium membership (similar to a subscription system), the value of this membership increases.
Anything but cheap – but perhaps worth a purchase for fans.
The Student Pack already costs a hefty €70, but also includes some additional items, such as 30 days of premium membership, the early reservation of a character name, two additional character slots, and 2400 NCoin, which can also be redeemed in other NCSoft games (such as WildStar).
Finally, there is the Master Pack for a powerful €115, which brings with it 60 additional days of premium membership, another name reservation, 5 extra character slots, 7200 NCoin, and a number of exclusive skins and costumes.
The beta for the European Blade & Soul starts this fall, and the game is set to celebrate its release in the first quarter of 2016. It was explicitly mentioned that beta keys will also be distributed to players who do not purchase a founder pack – a little patience can therefore still lead to the beta.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The somewhat unfortunate franchise Hellgate may experience a revival in 2016. The Korean rights holders are betting on virtual reality.
Hellgate has a long decline behind it. A year ago, they essentially announced the end of the ailing IP: Hanbitsoftware ceased development on Hellgate 2. The Koreans had acquired the rights to the “Hellgate” brand from Flagship Studios.
Apparently, they’ve now found something new in Korea to do with the license. For 2016, Hanbitsoftware announces “Hellgate VR.” It is set to be a “horror shooter” that they want to develop together with a virtual reality company. Hellgate is supposed to deliver the dark and unique setting for Hellgate VR.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Destiny a teaser for tomorrow’s stream has now been released. It already reveals many secrets.
Bungie has a stream scheduled for tomorrow. It is supposed to cover “Year 2 in Destiny”, game systems, and the daily life, so to speak. The stream has now been announced with a teaser trailer.
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Most of what was in the trailer has already been known if you followed Destiny in the last months. Cayde-6 with Nathan Fillion and casual jokes. He will ensure that the story progresses and becomes more relaxed. The new quest system – the contents of Destiny will be “questified.” We saw the new light level, the bounties, the new way to join factions. That has gradually come out in the last weeks. With almost every one of these buzzwords, you can already begin to understand something.
But Bungie has still withheld information and there are now the first hints:
These four pieces of information have caught our attention
“Exotic Blueprints” – curious to see what that will be. It already looks like one of the most exciting things that will appear in tomorrow’s stream. Is it a new way to obtain exotic weapons? Or is it really a “Collection”, a kind of storage box, where you can place the weapons you have already obtained and craft them anew? It indicates that the “Year 1” weapons will also appear here. Such a thing had already been confirmed for shaders and emblems. There are also surprisingly many “Year 2 weapons” to see, many more than the 12 that were announced. Strange.
“Infusion” is supposed to be what you do with weapons you would have previously dismantled. It was already mentioned that you will be able to upgrade other weapons with them. Details about this are still unknown to us.
The new artifact slot, there is still very little known about it, except that it is supposed to come.
The real information will be available tomorrow in a live stream. It starts at 8:00 PM. We will embed it here on mein MMO and accompany it with a live ticker (of course in German), either so you can read along directly or to digest what you have seen later.
But even the teaser can be analyzed for hours and dissected into details.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
But even if the call for investors or buyers sounds critical, Funcom is confident that they will come out of the crisis. This impression is conveyed by the CEO in the interview.
They have been in business for 20 years, have developed valuable tools over the years, and built their own platform. With this, potential buyers can develop any kind of MMO across various platforms. Everything is running smoothly, and they have capable developers. Games like Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, or The Secret World continue to function, and with The Longest Journey, they have an attractive brand. Funcom is structured in a way that they have “attractive parts” that can be separated from the overall complex and sold individually.
The ongoing MMORPGs continue to generate profit and “are doing well for Funcom.” Therefore, they are confident that the games will continue to run at a minimum, whether operated by Funcom itself or someone else. The games have high quality with an engaged community. They are confident that the games still have a long life ahead.
It is not necessarily required to have the help of an investor or buyer; they are looking for internal solutions. At Funcom, they are aware that mistakes were made in the past and that they must start anew and change some things. They are also willing to do so.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Heroes of the Storm, the Eternal Conflict is slowly but surely coming to an end. What follows afterwards and what does the distant future look like?
Diablo overshadows everything
The new map comes with the next patch – albeit with a slight delay.
Artanis is ready to go – he’s just waiting for the Starcraft expansion.
In the near future, there is a desire to return to a colorful mix. Sometimes a hero from Warcraft (Rexxar), then one from Starcraft (Artanis) and if it fits, even a Diablo character. They consider the Eternal Conflict a success, but have slight concerns that perhaps there was a bit too much focus on the love for Diablo. After all, the Nexus should be a place where the different universes collide and not one world dominating the entire gameplay. Moreover, the possibilities for surprising players are greater when characters can be drawn from all franchises and not just from one, simply because it is part of the expansion.
Nevertheless, theme-based expansions are not cursed forever – they should just not be so regular as to harm the diversity of Heroes of the Storm. So if you’re hoping for a Warcraft or Starcraft expansion of the MOBA, you don’t have to completely bury that wish.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
With the expansion The Great Tournament, a new game board appears in Hearthstone. A video now shows the gameplay and secrets of the location.
Wurst Stand and Training Dummies
With every new expansion of Hearthstone, there is, apart from the numerous cards, always a new playfield where players can engage in their duels. Some players consider this unnecessary, while others (like me) enjoy the many little details that the developers continually incorporate into the framework of the game.
A video from hearthpwn.com shows the new board in action:
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Some fans lament that this time nothing can be permanently destroyed, like the rocket on the GvG game board. However, you can wonderfully vent your frustration over the random factor on the defenseless training dummy – it also serves as an occupation when the Face Hunter is once again almost running out of time because he is cooking in the kitchen.
What do you think of the new game board? Nice little features or just silly additions that no one needs?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Unfortunately, there will be no official MMORPG based on the horror role-playing game World of Darkness, as EVE Online developers CCP Games have halted work on it. However, another team is now working on a similar game called Project Dogmat.
World of Darkness has a large fanbase, and the concept has proven to work as a video game, as shown by the RPG Vampire – The Masquerade: Bloodlines released in 2004. Fans have long desired an MMORPG set in this dark scenario. Without an official license but with a lot of passion, a development team is working on Project Dogmat. The MMO takes place in a gloomy world where vampires and other creatures of the night exist and engage in an everlasting battle. You belong to those beings. Horror elements and a dark atmosphere are prioritized in the MMO.
A huge “World of Darkness”
Project Dogmat aims to offer a classless system where you can shape your hero according to your ideas. This also applies to the appearance, which can be detailed and customized during character creation. The combat system is said to be a mix of the well-known hotbar system of other genre representatives and a target-based system similar to that found in third-person shooters. With your hero, you will explore large cities that all have a life of their own and react to your actions and those of other players. In many adventures, you will fight your enemies.
https://youtu.be/kaThM4tLaWs
However, aside from these challenges, you will also dedicate yourselves to nightlife and visit clubs to meet other players. Together with them, you can set off to complete more difficult tasks. It should even be possible to infiltrate a hostile organization and then destroy it from within. The developers want to provide a massive game world for thousands of players through a server cluster system. There will be no different worlds; everyone plays in the same one.
Project Dogmat is being developed using the Unity Engine 5, and a Kickstarter campaign is expected to begin soon, through which the team hopes to fund the development of the MMORPG. This crowdfunding is apparently very important to the developers, as it seems that the game will not exist without successful funding.
What do you think of Project Dogmat? Do you believe the developers can realize the MMO, and do you think it can become a worthy, albeit unofficial “World of Darkness” game?
https://youtu.be/-yT4eyzNLmQ
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Overwatch is more or less in the starting preparations for the closed beta version. At Gamescom, Jeff Kaplan talked about the plans for the universe in the future …
More work than actually necessary
At Gamescom, Pcgamesn had the opportunity to talk to Jeff Kaplan, the Game Director of Overwatch and former World Designer of World of Warcraft. Here, they mainly discussed the long-term plans that Blizzard has for the new shooter – and what the future might hold for other games.
Many details of the maps might later be important to let fans establish a connection.
“At first glance, it seems we are doing more than necessary,” he revealed in the interview, referring to the many details that can be discovered in the maps of Overwatch. Even though most players will never see these details – because they panic and shoot at enemies or jump into cover – they are very important: Overwatch is to become a complex universe that can stand up in terms of story density and complexity with Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft.
A Blizzard version of our world
Overwatch brings together characters from various cultures and celebrates this diversity.
“At Blizzard, we love to create worlds,” Kaplan says in the interview. “Working based on planet Earth was fantastic. It may sound strange, but we had to ask ourselves: What could we do with our planet that would be really cool?” The developers posed questions like: What is Blizzard’s version of Africa? Or of Egypt? And although not everything in the world of Overwatch is peaceful, the vision of our Earth reflects quite central problems of our time and turns them into the positive opposite.
Thus, the organization “Overwatch” is nothing but a symbol for internationalism, bringing together the greatest heroes from all around the world. The Numbani map also shows a refreshing vision of the future of Africa, which has technologically caught up with the rest of the world and even surpasses a large part of the rest of the world with this utopian city, because Ominics (robots) and humans live here in perfect symbiosis.
The future of Overwatch
It will still take a lot of time before we see the Overwatch heroes in Heroes of the Storm.
While it is certainly a bit premature to already want to talk about the future of Overwatch when the game hasn’t even reached beta yet, Jeff Kaplan and his team have ambitious goals. Finding the balance between “little things that lore fans can enjoy” and “enough freedom for other games to expand the universe” is challenging. Nevertheless, they aim to achieve just that: If it were up to Kaplan, Overwatch should eventually be able to support its own MMO in the style of World of Warcraft – this is by no means an announcement nor a statement like “Blizzard is giving up on WoW,” but merely a wish for the complexity that they want to achieve with the new franchise, supported by novels, videos, and other games from possibly completely different genres.
Eventually, the Overwatch characters should also be playable in Heroes of the Storm, but “Overwatch first has to earn that.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the MMO shooter Destiny the servers will be offline this evening. Maintenance work is taking place, an update is likely to be deployed.
Regular readers know, when the robot appears as the title image, then maintenance work for Destiny is imminent.
Today, on August 18th, around 7:00 PM our time, the servers will be taken down, and “final preparations will be made” for the distribution of the Nepal Shader.
Tomorrow, we’ll be making final preparations to enable Nepal Shader distribution – among other things. Stay tuned… https://t.co/3ObqF81sll
Furthermore, they want to accomplish “other things” as well. What exactly that means and how long this maintenance will take, Bungie does not specify. It could take a few hours again. That’s usually how long it takes. We will keep you updated if there are any news.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In League of Legends , a cryptic promo page has now been launched. Apparently, it’s about new skins.
Riot is getting weirder and weirder. Now a promo page has appeared that seems to be intended to announce “Project” skins. This will turn the champions into some kind of cyborg. There is already one, belonging to Yasuo.
The promo page is a kind of matrix: From an info node, branches extend to others, where mysterious messages like “The cow has calved” appear, such as “Storm, a flower drifting in the wind, …”
People who deal with such things believe: Riot wants to announce more “Project” skins for existing champions. Candidates include Leona, Fiora, Zed, and Lucian. And one of the nodes leads to nothing, behind which a new champion could be hiding, they think.
In the MMO shooter Destiny, the week begins on Tuesday, 18th August. A new weekly Nightfall strike is determined, and the occupation of the Prison of Elders changes. Variks receives new inventory. What will come out this time?
The challenge in Destiny at the moment is not to deal with the Servants of Darkness, but rather to follow the news. There is really a lot going on. Tomorrow evening at 8:00 PM, a first live stream will take place. We will embed it here in an article and comment on it in German.
But now let’s get to the weekly reset.
Weekly Nightfall Strike on 18th August features Taniks
The DLC-2 strike Shadow Thief is back. The modifiers are Voidburn, Solarburn and Grounded.
This week’s heroic weekly is Phogoth
Everyone’s favorite ogre Phogoth is featured in the Heroic Weekly. The modifier here is: Small Weapons.
Everything about the Prison of Elders in Destiny in the week of 18th August
1. Cabal/Specialist – Special weapon damage is doubled 2. Fallen/Solar Switch – Enemies deal increased melee damage 3. Fallen/Airborne – Players deal more damage while in the air 4. Fallen/Exposure – Guardian shields are increased, but do not regenerate 5. Fallen/Grounded – Players take increased damage while in the air
Vex/Airborne – Guardians deal increased damage while in the air
Hive/Grounded – Guardians take increased damage while in the air
Vex – Voidburn
Hive/Angry – The enemies cannot be stopped even by effect hits
Hive/Exposure- Guardian shields are reinforced, but do not regenerate
Skolas, Kell of Kells, also awaits on 18th August in the 35 Prison of Elders
In the 35 Prison, Skolas, the Kell of Kells, sits. This week he has these two modifiers: Small Weapons and Solar Switch.
Hive – Exposure/Brute – Guardian shields are stronger, do not regenerate/Melee damage of Guardians is increased
Vex – Grounded/Airborne – Guardians deal more damage in the air, but also take more damage there
Cabal – Catapult/Arc Burn – the cooldown of grenades is reduced, Arc damage significantly increased, also for the enemies
Fallen – Specialist/Juggler- Special weapons deal increased damage, enemies leave no ammo for the weapon with which they were defeated
Fallen – Stream/Small Weapons – Skills have a longer cooldown, damage dealt with primary weapons is increased
What does Variks sell?
Variks is selling the hand cannon Pride of the Six Exiles this week with One-Man Army and increased damage on Shank (Shank Burn)
In addition, Chest Armors, which have the same properties for all three classes: They increase armor and melee damage when fighting Fallen in the Prison. Moreover, Variks’ Chest Armors this week increase the Guardians’ capacity to carry ammo for pulse rifles and special weapons.
The stats are:
For Titans 90 INT, 86 STR
For Warlocks 82 DIS, 79 STR
For Hunters 83 INT, 80 STR
Guides? Tips? Tricks?
We will present one or the other video throughout the day, in which a group of Guardians manages to overcome one of the challenges this week.
Our friend Nexxos is taking on Taniks. It’s the international “I’m blowing everything away with Gjallarhorn” days, and then also “Solar Burn” – the result of this combination should be clear, although more of Crota’s word and Black Spindle can be seen in this video. However, be careful: With all the modifiers Taniks and his crew hit like horses on this killer stuff … oats!
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The Free2Play MMORPG Rift wants to awaken players with a series of quirky commercials, giving it a new chance.
The theme of the three new commercials from Rift is: “You think Free2Play MMORPGs are like this. We are here to wake you up and show you that we can be fun too.”
The commercials feature some of the patented Rift tentacle creatures playing rustic pranks on sleeping and slumbering potential customers.
In the MMO shooter Destiny, a deal has been made again with an author who was previously responsible for another MMO.
On July 24, Christine “Kestrel” Thompson left after 7 years as the lead writer of Star Trek Online, the somewhat aging Free2Play MMO set in the Star Trek franchise. She did not mention a reason, only that it was time for new adventures, new worlds.
It is now clear where Thompson has ended up: She will be a Senior Writer at Bungie. With this, Destiny has secured another employee with years of MMO experience. Last year, they also recruited from Guild Wars 2. This should help maintain the new direction for the “questification” of the game content in the long term.
Even though Star Trek Online has some technical difficulties, it is considered an MMO that does many things right in terms of story and lore fidelity. This is exactly where fans have identified major weaknesses in the mammoth project Destiny since its release.
On Wednesday, a card chaos will again take place in Hearthstone – presenting the first cards from the new expansion The Grand Tournament!
Medivh vs. Alleria – Inspiration vs. Joust
This week there will again be a new card chaos in Hearthstone, and this time we won’t see a repeat! As already announced on the official Hearthstone Battle.net page, this week everything revolves around the battle between Alleria and Medivh. The special thing about tournament rivals and the two opponents: They bring the first cards from the upcoming expansion The Grand Tournament!
The Nexus-Champion would fit Medivh’s deck.
Medivh will mainly have cards in the deck that make use of the new inspiration mechanic, while Valeera is more specialized in cards that benefit from jousting.
The new card chaos is available from Wednesday at 5 PM, whether there will be a classic card pack as a reward for the first victory is still uncertain, but seems very likely.
An “honorable mention” was grabbed by one of the community favorites – the “Meh” days, a Crucible montage with scenes, that you usually prefer to keep quiet.
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We have little to add. With Bungie’s selection, we are quite satisfied this time. Well, perhaps one thing. One of our readers sent us this rare occurrence. A seventh column.
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If you discovered a great video last week, please post it in the comments. And if you have something you think: The guys at Mein MMO should take a look at this, send it to us via the Mein MMO contact form.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In WildStar , the discovery feature has been part of the repertoire since beta – now the attractiveness is being increased again to score in the Free2Play model!
New Pets and Costumes for Diligent Explorers
No matter where you are in WildStar, discoveries are a fixed part of the game world. A shimmering mound of earth appears at random locations in the environment, granting a special gift to the first player who clicks on it. Currently, these range from small things like 15-minute buffs and green gear pieces to a mini-event where waves of aliens must be defeated. Nevertheless, the incentives were not big enough to really search for these discovery points – while players were happy to find them, they did not actively seek them out.
Those who go on an exploration tour can soon get new pets.
This will change with the Free2Play patch in the fall! Then, the discoveries will receive some upgrades: On the one hand, they will appear more frequently, may contain longer buffs, and furthermore have a chance to drop unique pets (one per zone) and armor pieces from 9 different costumes. In this way, Carbine hopes to ignite some competition among the players.
What do you think, a clever timesink or a useful addition to the mechanic?
