In the fantasy MMO The Elder Scrolls Online, the next patch is already on the horizon. 1.4.4 focuses primarily on PvP and balance.
It has been a week since the fourth update reached Tamriel. On Tuesday morning, players on the European mega-server are expected to enjoy the next patch, which aims to fix some of the difficulties encountered in Cyrodiil, the PvP zone.
The cause of an issue that led to client crashes in Cyrodiil has been identified; they are addressing castle doors that remained locked, and modifying a save behavior that caused problems.
Furthermore, balance adjustments are being made in many areas. Fully charged attacks now return either stamina or mana. And the annoying “head bobbing” while running is also to be reduced.
The full patch notes in German can be found here. The patch will be deployed tomorrow morning as usual, unless Molag’Bal shows up and causes an unreasonably out-of-date apocalypse.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the free online card game Hearthstone, two dominant cards are being nerfed. The starving buzzard was no fun for the opponent and caused a Hunter boom. An era is coming to an end with Leeroy Jenkins. But what is really behind the nerfs?
Leeroy Jenkins will cost five mana instead of four starting tomorrow morning. “Starving Buzzard,” an important class card for Hunters, is being completely reworked and raised from two to five mana, receiving only slightly improved stats in return. We have already presented the nerfs here.
Professional card player, Brian Kibler, who created the WoW Trading Card Game, gained fame in Magic: The Gathering, and is also a legendary player in Hearthstone, discusses the backgrounds of the nerf in a blog post that is also being discussed on Reddit.
Buzzard had to be changed, was a fun killer
Kibler believes that the buzzard made it onto the nerf endangered species list because it promotes a play style in Hearthstone that Blizzard does not want to see. The buzzard instills fear in the opponent to play their own minions on the field in combination with “Unleash the Hounds!”. For every enemy minion on the board, “Unleash the Hounds!” summons a 1/1 beast. The “Starving Buzzard” in turn gives the Hunter a card for every summoned beast. Those facing a Hunter hesitated to bring out too many of their own minions for fear of the mana-efficient yet powerful combo.
Blizzard wants to make Hearthstone a game of minion against minion, Kibler states. Hunters disrupted this idea. It became especially frustrating for Shamans and Paladins to face them. They could not even safely use their hero power.
Some players had called for the “Unleash the Hounds!” card to be nerfed instead of the buzzard. After all, it was part of the problem. But Kibler sees it differently: The card is strong in conjunction with the hyena, but still within acceptable limits and can still be played well in the future. The problem is the “engine” card, the buzzard. This was where action needed to be taken.
Leeroy a wrong approach to nerf in Hearthstone – is just a symbol, not the cause
While the buzzard nerf found favor with Kibler, the situation is different for Leeroy. He serves as a finisher in complex combinations that require 3 or more cards, previously acting as a kind of closing stone. But it is not these combinations (among others with Shadowstep or Faceless Manipulator) that are the problem, but the ability of Rogues and Warlocks to easily draw their entire deck, the so-called “cycling”.
Therefore, Kibler is more focused on the Auctioneer, who lets you draw a new card with every spell, and on the Warlock’s hero power. Leeroy as a card serves more as a symbol for decks that get the right card combination into their hands quickly through card draw to win swiftly. But it is not Leeroy that is crucial, but the cards that allow for that draw.
The future after the nerf: Hunters dead, Handlock dominant
Leeroy can also be replaced by cards like Al’Akir with Rockbiter weapons or other finishers. Last week, a tournament took place where Leeroy and the buzzard had already been banned, Kibler notes. The result: Hunters were hardly played at all. Instead, there were a lot of Handlocks who dominated the tournament with their hero power and superior card draw.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the fantasy MMO Final Fantasy XIV, there has been a real trailer overload for the upcoming Patch 2.4. Four trailers have been presented in Tokyo.
The Patch 2.4 cannot come soon enough in Final Fantasy XIV. Not only is the housing market situation in Eorzea almost as bad as in this other game, but too much cool stuff is coming to FF14 to wait any longer. We introduced you just a few days ago to what awaits you in 2.4, and now we have the corresponding trailers. And they’re impressive: Ninjas in action, new dungeons, and a first look at Shiva.
Here is the official trailer:
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In the MMO shooter Destiny , a farming spot for legendary engrams has become well known. The spot, affectionately dubbed “Treasure Cave” by fans, proves to be an inexhaustible source of enemies and thus items.
It is a kind of holy grail in every fresh MMO: a spot, a location in the game, with infinite respawn, that is easy to farm and promises rich loot . In Diablo, the cult around a secret spot with the cow level has been commemorated. In the past, true mysteries arose around such spots; they were only shared among friends or guild members so that no one else could benefit from the precious source of endless looting or EXP.
In every game, treasure hunters have been searching for such an El Dorado since the beginning of MMOs, a land of milk and honey where loot grows on trees. Whether it came about through the developers’ mistake or as a result of a deliberate design decision.
Such a spot has now been found in Destiny: a cave from which an unending stream of mobs emerges, bringing engrams and drops with them.
When decrypting these engrams, with luck, either legendary items come out right away or at least a bunch of green items. Additionally, you can level up the Cryptarch with engrams in Destiny, and he will then send legendary items by mail.
Normally, one would refer to such a spot as a “secret tip,” but after the video from Force Strategy Gaming, which we are presenting to you subsequently, has already garnered over 130,000 hits, US sites like Polygon or Kotaku report on it prominently, and there is even a code of conduct for the cave on Reddit, this secret tip has probably run its course. Destiny is simply so big that nothing remains secret.
What is the “Treasure Cave” in Destiny?
The Treasure Cave in Destiny is a spot from which waves of low-level mobs continuously stream. If they are shot down immediately upon spawning from a safe distance, they fall down, and the next wave spawns.
On your own, the spawn is hardly manageable, but that doesn’t matter: due to the popularity of the cave and Destiny’s fame, someone is always camping there. If the spawn is unexpectedly off, it only means that mobs have escaped and are wandering in the open field. They need to be taken down.
Important for the Treasure Cave: Everyone must be behind the green marker, which can also be seen on the left side in the video; otherwise, it blocks the spawn. Therefore, it should be agreed not to loot too often but only when enough stuff is lying around and it’s worth it. Then it’s best to move forward as a group.
More tips have surfaced in the English-speaking subreddit for Destiny. It is ideal to use a weapon that deals explosive damage and to pick up the ammunition you shoot. This automatically collects all the loot, allowing for uninterrupted farming. The use of a scout or pulse rifle is especially recommended.
As seen in the video, you don’t even have to kill mobs yourself to loot; you can also benefit from the kills of others. At the moment, this cave really seems to be the El Dorado in Destiny: the stuff legends are made from. Until the fix. It is already expected. It can’t be that Bungie leaves such a thing in the game, they say. Some suspect that Bungie intentionally designed this cave to create legends around it that will live on long after its collapse. Somewhat poetic.
How to get to the spot, where to position yourself, and what loot you can expect is explained in this video:
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10,000 botters have been banned in the sandbox MMO ArcheAge, new EU servers might come as early as Tuesday.
There is another status update fresh from the sandbox MMO ArcheAge. On Sunday night US time and Monday morning our time, the CEO of Trion Worlds, Scott Hartsman, spoke out. The whole weekend, Trion Worlds has been working hard to deliver the best possible outcome for the players.
EU servers are set to clear customs on Tuesday
“On the internet, an hour feels like a day, and a day feels like a week,” Hartsman said. Therefore, he understands how impatient European players are waiting for the new servers. At the moment, the new hardware for the European servers is still in customs.
It is expected to clear customs on Tuesday. Technicians are already on standby to bring the hardware online as quickly as possible. Hartsman cannot specify exactly when the servers will arrive. A community manager mentioned in another post “before next weekend.”
Daily restarts are expected to relieve clogged servers in ArcheAge
The issue with “clogging” AFK players blocking valuable capacity on the servers is being addressed with daily restarts. This should at least temporarily alleviate the congestion. Additionally, players are also being manually removed from the game.
According to Hartsman, a fix for these AFK problem players could arrive as early as Monday or Tuesday our time, which should significantly reduce the long queues. During peak times, too much space is currently being taken up by AFK players.
Furthermore, according to Hartsman, Trion Worlds has already banned about 10,000 botters and cheaters from the game in the past few days. Over the weekend, the servers in North America were also victims of a DDoS attack, but it ended without major issues and the game continued running all the time. According to Hartsman, Europe was not affected by this attack.
Regarding the possibility of compensation, Hartsman stated that they have already credited the Patron players last week to compensate for the head start, where many lacked Patron status. They have now expanded this so that the Patron status has only been calculated since last Saturday.
Update 9 PM: For a change, some good news from Trion Worlds, the servers were able to clear customs a day earlier than planned and are currently being prepared. The schedule could therefore be moved forward.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Wargaming, the developers of the tank MMO World of Tanks, provide a taste of the promised “fun mode” with a gameplay trailer. This is called “Tank Rally” and will be open to WoT players from September 29 to October 12.
On a modified version of the map “Port”, teams compete on an obstacle course to be the first to cross the finish line. The tracked vehicles not only drive alongside each other but also make life difficult for each other with rocket fire and ramming tactics. But not only projectiles make the race an explosive experience. The creators also promise additional interaction possibilities, such as spectacular jumps that are supposed to bring a whole new dynamic to the free-to-play online shooter.
Unlike Formula 1, all participants of the rally are given the same competitive conditions. Without exception, the pilots only have access to the tank model “M24 Chaffee Sport”.
Mein MMO says: Wow, this strongly reminds us gaming nostalgic ones of the famous Mario Kart or even further back to the Amiga classic Super Cars. It’s a shame that the Tank Rally is of limited duration. The video looks like a very fun event that has been carefully crafted.
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The plan for the next week is now set for ArcheAge. On the overcrowded server Kyprosa, no new characters can soon be created, new servers for Europe are on the way, and inquiries have also been made in Korea regarding server transfers.
Surge ten times greater than expected
The queues at the fresh sandpark MMO ArcheAge are still large. ArcheAge used the values from the beta as a reason to conclude the interest of players at launch.
Thus, they provided enough servers and then a few in reserve. However, the surge was ten times greater than expected, as Community Manager Scapes states in the official forum. And the reserve servers had to be brought online soon.
ArcheAge and the sleeping jury
The queues are due not only to the surge but also to tricks that allow players to stay on the servers even when they are not at the computer. This way, they avoid the AFK check, bypass queues that occur when relogging, and also increase their labor point regeneration. This leads to some absurd situations like this sleeping jury, as can be seen in a screenshot posted on reddit:
In the ArcheAge forum and also on reddit, accusations against Trion Worlds are increasing, stating that they left some loopholes open, allowing players to remain logged in indefinitely even if they had not been active for hours.
These loopholes include, for example, sitting AFK in a courtroom or hitting a training dummy for hours.
As a comment on reddit states: “People have known all the dirty tricks since Korea and every single one still works here.” Some therefore demand to increase labor point regeneration even when players are offline to at least curb this incentive.
This is what Trion Worlds plans to do next week
Trion Worlds wants to solve the issues with long queues primarily through three measures:
When the new servers arrive, the creation of new characters will no longer be possible on the largest server Kyprosa, which has a higher capacity than the rest. Trion Worlds reserves the right to prohibit character creation on other European servers as well. In the USA, such a ban already applies to four worlds.
At XLGames, the Korean developer, inquiries have also been made about whether a type of server transfer can be offered. Currently, Trion Worlds cannot do that yet. If this service comes that allows players to move from overcrowded servers to new or low-populated worlds, it will probably happen without land ownership.
In the MMO shooter Destiny, the Guardian’s power increases through equipment starting at level 20. What tricks are there to increase the Light Level with Marks, Coins, and Materials ?
Those who rely on luck in Destiny are left behind
In Destiny, many players become frustrated with the Light Level. Progress can only be made with better gear. Those relying on Engrams and hoping that a legendary Engram yields a legendary item are often disappointed.
The tiny chance for useful random rewards after Strikes or rounds in the Crucible leads to frustration. Even if something great comes out, it may not fit the player’s class or has poor stat distribution. Is it therefore impossible to level up in Light? And does it all depend on luck? No, it doesn’t. That’s what the pros say in the English-speaking forum on reddit.
Marks, Coins, and Materials – the three Ms of Destiny
Instead of hoping that the Cryptarch or the RNG God takes pity on the poor Guardian, they should take matters into their own hands and rely on the three Ms: Marks, Coins, and Materials.
Engrams and RNG, the pro advises, should only be seen as a “nice bonus” and players shouldn’t invest too much hope in them. Players can earn guaranteed legendary items every week if they just know how. That’s the real opportunity to get a higher Light Level. According to a current guide, players should do the following each week:
collect the weekly maximum of Crucible or Vanguard Marks. This is easier than it seems by trading materials for the marks and participating in public events or patrol missions.
increase their reputation with factions. This is also facilitated by trading in materials. Those who reach rank 3 with a faction are guaranteed to receive a legendary weapon from the faction’s arsenal as a bonus.
earn Strange Coins. These become easier to obtain as you grow stronger. Either through the grind with blue Engrams and as mission rewards or when completing the heroic weekly quests at levels 24, 26, and 28 – then you get three coins each time.
With the Marks, players can stock up on guaranteed legendary items from the faction traders and can even get an exotic weapon or armor piece from the vendor Xur every weekend with the coins. Sounds much better than relying on chance.
It’s important for frustration-free achievement of the weekly caps on these Marks to actively pursue those activities that yield these Marks.
Materials as a key resource in Destiny
According to the guide creator, it is not widely known that the yields from planetary resources double after a Guardian achieves a certain amount of kills on a planet. With this bonus, 50 Materials per run can be obtained solely from chests and farming natural resources.
There are further bonuses of this kind that reward diligent work permanently. Those who complete 25 VIP patrol missions receive higher rewards for city tasks. By effectively utilizing these bonuses, players can save themselves a Strike or a round in the Crucible.
The heavy stuff is really worth it
Lucrative opportunities to use time effectively in Destiny also include patrol missions or public events. The materials can be exchanged for Marks at various merchants, and the Marks can ultimately be exchanged for items.
The stronger a Guardian becomes and the more the challenging missions and tasks open up for them, the less they have to rely on luck or grinding. Particularly the missions on the Nightfall difficulty in Destiny, designed for Light Level 28 and above, are repeatedly mentioned in every guide on reddit as an essential component to obtain excellent drops and unlock XP bonuses for the week. Destiny gives players the choice, as is common in MMOs, between doing an overwhelming amount of simple tasks or tackling fewer but harder challenges.
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For missions of this caliber, a full team of well-equipped and coordinated Guardians is recommended.
The point is: There are systems in place that significantly ease and shorten the path to increasing the Light Level.
500-800 Reputation gathering per hour
Also on reddit, there is an unusual method for quickly accumulating reputation. Here, three Guardians team up and divide the Cosmodrome among themselves. Each of the three takes a third of the area and clears it out as quickly as possible, keeping an eye on VIP missions.
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Founders are now receiving 30 free days as Patrons in the Sandpark MMO ArcheAge to compensate for the issues of last week.
After several attempts to restore the founders’ status and privileges, it seems to have finally succeeded on Saturday evening our time. After a night shift by Trion Worlds staff with the Korean developers of XLGames, who develop the original Korean game, they managed to solve the pesky Patron bug. This bug caused founders, who were supposed to receive benefits, to not get them in-game.
First, the 30 free days will be consumed
Those who log in as founders now and find that they only have 30 days of Patron status instead of significantly more, because they purchased a more expensive package, need not be alarmed. This is intentional. As the community manager Scapes informs, founders have received 30 free days as a “bonus” as Patrons.
First, the time from this bonus will be deducted, and only when the 30 days are up will the actual Patron game time begin. These bonus days should also apply to players who are not founders but have already purchased Patron time.
As seen in forum posts, not everyone has received this bonus time yet. However, this should happen gradually. Those who are still missing Patron time, which they are entitled to, should contact customer support.
ArcheAge has solved a problem, now it’s time to tackle the queues
Next, Trion Worlds is targeting the still long queues. While the USA has received two new servers, Luzius and Ezi, and a block is in place on the four largest servers to create new characters, the necessary hardware for additional European servers is on its way to the data center in Amsterdam and must pass through customs first. At least for Sunday, new EU servers are therefore ruled out.
Currently, Trion Worlds is working hard to improve the AFK check system and ensure that the queue advances faster until they can open new servers.
They likely do not want to increase the capacity of existing servers further. This has already been done – the servers have been increased by 20% since launch, with the most popular server even by 30%. Thus, Kyporsa is the largest ArcheAge server at least in the western hemisphere. According to Trion Worlds, further expansion would have negative effects on gameplay. There simply are not enough resources for such a server population, leading to technical issues.
Update Monday 10:30: In a statement, Trion Worlds CEO Scott Hartsman now speaks of compensation for the Patron players, but not of 30 days, but rather that the Patron status will be calculated only from Saturday, September 20. This would be a credit of 8 days and a bonus of 4 days. Because the head start, which was originally not supposed to be counted towards Patron time, has indeed been accruing since September 12.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the survival MMO H1Z1, players – like soldiers – must watch out for prominent objects, such as water towers, if they want to meet up with friends.
The zombie MMO H1Z1 is supposed to be different. They have proclaimed “realism” as their goal. If there ever is a zombie apocalypse, it will unfold just like in H1Z1, fans and developers agree. Just as high-ranking US military officials once said that if attacked by giant combat robots, the US Army would respond just as in the Transformers movies, which were authentically researched.
Now, in a “realistic” zombie apocalypse, it would probably be hard to log in next to your friend or magically “sense” him on the mini-map. And in H1Z1, it is supposed to be part of the adventure to find each other in this world. Because it is expansive. And since the first areas of the world are modeled after the Pacific Northwest of the USA – which is a pretty sparsely populated region on the border with Canada – everything might look a bit bleak and monotonous. Many forests, farms, small villages – very little flickering neon light or cool water slides.
Therefore, players should prepare to meet up with friends based on distinctive landmarks, and those should also be clearly visible from afar. Phrases like “Meet me at the house with the doghouse” or “I am at the intersection where three zombies are lying in front of a pickup truck” make it difficult. Hence, well-visible water towers should serve as landmarks. They were recently introduced in a blog post, and to the delight of fans, they were all presented in multiple colors.
Well, saying it is the delight of fans might be a bit exaggerated. On Reddit, the announcement was rather met with gallows humor. There – as everywhere else – people are waiting for a date for early access. It seems that nothing will come of it in September either. SOE is not sending any signals in that direction. And at the Nvidia event, a delegation from H1Z1 was present, but unfortunately, nothing was announced.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
During the weekend, Destiny provides more precise numbers about the MMO shooter. An average session lasts three hours during the week, and even four on weekends. The deaths that have already occurred in the Crucible are now in the tens of millions.
100 million hours, Bungie proudly announces, have already been spent by players in Destiny. Enough time to watch the extended version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (the really, really long one) exactly 8,797,653 times. That’s quite a lot of Lord of the Rings.
Destiny captivates: Typical session lasts three hours
A typical session of Destiny players lasts about three hours. On weekends, the sessions even exceed four hours.
And 167 million “activities” have already been conducted in the game. A Crucible match, although involving 12 players, counts as just one activity.
One last special note: In Destiny, PvP players do not just die once, but a dozen times. A billion deaths of players have already occurred in Destiny’s Crucible, in PvP mode.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the SF-MMO WildStar, the guild Enigma has achieved a World First in the 40-man raid Datascape. While other progression guilds, including the German guild Chase, are withdrawing from the game.
For many players, the raids in WildStar are the ultimate goal. Before you can enter, you must complete a long access quest, the gear must be right, you need to master your character from A to Z, and then you need 39 others for whom the same applies.
While for most normal mortals the 20-man raid “The Genarchive” is hard enough, top guilds managed to overcome this months ago and have been hanging out in the “Datascapes”, a 40-man raid, for a few weeks now. Since it was also difficult for the top guilds to increase their raid roster in WildStar from 20 to 40, many struggled to make significant progress (additionally, certain encounters in the raid were apparently buggy).
While Enigma is currently celebrating another World First kill, other guilds, as reported by readycheck.org, are ceasing their raid activities. Both Voodoo, who could still compete with Enigma in the Datascapes, and the German progression guild Chase are turning their backs on WildStar. Chase was unable to expand to 40 players. Voodoo was simply tired of waiting for improvements in the game from Carbine. Although they loved the game, they have now decided to take this step. You can find the full statements from both guilds in the sources.
But now to the positive: If you want to see what raiding at the highest level is like in WildStar – Enigma has released a kill video of “Volatility Lattice”.
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The fantasy MMO The Elder Scrolls Online is currently enjoying a musical tribute from a fan.
The Disney song “Let it Go” from Frozen is once again inspiring the masses. This time, a TESO fan has reworked the song to fit The Elder Scrolls Online and “MMO.” Although this tribute to the joys of playing together in an online game may not quite match the original in terms of singing, the song has received approval from the employees at Zenimax and has brought smiles to some fans’ faces.
“Everyone in the office loves the song,” was the response from the community management at The Elder Scrolls Online.
Since Update 4 has also been rolled out without at least those major issues that have accompanied such updates in the past, perhaps there is now some time to catch our breath and simply enjoy the game we have.
In the video, Tamriel looks damn good. We have to say that.
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The dark fantasy MMO Rift is now introducing the fundamentals of the minion system, which will be introduced to Telara with the new expansion.
Rift, the MMO from Trion Worlds, which isn’t currently driving many crazy, plans to introduce a new feature with the expansion “Nightmare Tides” on October 8: collectible minions. This is a similar model to what players of Star Trek Online already know and what players of World of Warcraft will encounter on November 12.
Minions count across all characters for each character of the same server cluster in Rift. Players can only own one version of a minion at a time.
Minions are sent on missions, from which they can return with Dimension items, notoriety, artifacts, or crafting materials.
Minions have advantages in the form of elemental points that predispose them for specific missions. If a mission favors a minion with fire affinity and you send such a minion into the field, it will have a higher chance to return with more loot. A mission cannot fail; it can only yield more or less loot.
The missions take place in real-time, and minions have a stamina value that regenerates automatically.
Minions can be obtained as rewards for a variety of things. Some will also be available in the shop.
Mein MMO says: Yeah, this is essentially the system one would expect. It is basically a variant of the Duty Officer system in Star Trek Online, although there is nothing really surprising or new about it. It is merely a kind of mini-browser game within the game: It gives players a bit more to do and, above all, a sort of display case, where some won’t rest until every slot has the appropriate minion. Clever, but not exactly groundbreaking. World of Warcraft seems to want to go a bit further here.
The MMO Kingdom under Fire II, a mix of strategy and action, is set to conquer the Playstation 4 as a free-to-play title in the summer of 2015.
Kingdom under Fire II has gone through a turbulent development process. Some have been looking forward to the unique mix of various genres for years, but there have always been difficulties: sometimes the developer ran out of money; sometimes it was said that the technology was not yet ready to implement the ideas of the game. Currently, Kingdom under Fire II is playable on PC in Southeast Asia, and even an English version exists in Malaysia and Singapore.
Kingdom under Fire II aims to be the spearhead of the Free2Play MMO movement
The game is expected to begin its great success in the West in summer 2015, according to the developer Blueside. They plan to release the game for the Playstation 4 in English, Chinese, and Korean versions. The CEO of Blueside, Sejung Kim, speaks of rapid growth in the MMO segment for the Playstation 4. They would like to participate in this with Kingdom under Fire II and march ahead as a free-to-play online title.
According to mmoculture, an XBox One version of the title is still awaited. It is suspected that Microsoft may be opposed to F2P titles on their platform. Accompanying this news, there are two trailers for the game.
In the beta of the space MMO Elite: Dangerous, players can now expect a first major update. We present the changes in a short video.
The Elite beta test is running, just like in the premium beta, in different phases. So far, there has been little happening. Since the start of beta 1 on July 29, there have only been a few minor changes and bug fixes. Now, however, Frontier Development is gearing up considerably.
On September 30, the first phase ends and the beta of Elite: Dangerous moves into the second phase, Beta 2. Here, a proper update is served up with some changes and innovations for the hungry fans of the space MMO.
The main focus of the changes is clearly on the endless expanses of space: these are becoming significantly larger, more populated, and include some new challenges.
If you have played SMITE in the last few weeks, you have probably noticed the relatively new button on the main screen, the small ship icon that takes you to the “Odyssey”. But what exactly is it all about?
At first glance, it is clear that it is likely not referring to the voyages of Odysseus, although the entire concept is of course inspired by that. This refers to the “journey” to the SMITE World Championship in January 2015. Each week, the journey progresses further and a new item is unlocked, which can then be purchased in the game for jewels. This may seem like a very prolonged marketing campaign, since content that you also have to pay for is released over twenty weeks, but it serves another purpose: Every item from the Odyssey increases the prize pool for the World Championship, and after just a few weeks, the prize money already amounts to a whopping $800,000!
And to encourage purchases, each item also comes with a treasure chest for free – it can contain just about anything, some examples include a voice pack, a special skin for a deity, a special guardian skin, or an account booster that increases your favor gain for a few days.
The biggest highlights of the Odyssey are undoubtedly the “Run.exe” skin for Mercury and the “Pixel-Buster” skin for Freya – each costs 600 jewels, which is around 8 euros. Whether the gimmicks are important enough for someone to pay such an amount is something everyone must decide for themselves – however, those who own a majority of all Odyssey items receive (in addition to the chests) more nice perks, such as exclusive frames on the loading screen.
SMITE is a free-to-play MOBA with a mythological background, which comes very close to the MMO gameplay feeling due to its third-person perspective and the telegraph system. Interested? Then it’s best to read our review of SMITE.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the newly released World of Warcraft short film “The Lords of War – Part 4” Blizzard reveals the backstory of the orc leader Kilrogg, who had to retreat deep into the jungle with his tribal companion at the behest of his father due to the arrival of the Arakkoa. For Orcs, such a fearful, cowardly way of life is of course deeply dishonorable. How exactly Kilrogg changes the fate of his followers and why they are called “Clan of the Bleeding Eye” you can best find out by watching the short film yourself.
Kilrogg will likely be one of the boss enemies in Warlords of Draenor, but the name is already not entirely unknown in the game, as the warlock spell “Eye of Kilrogg” is named after this very orc.
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In the sandbox MMO ArcheAge, many paying players have not received the privileges they are entitled to. A hotfix aims to remedy this.
Update 11:10: The servers were offline for only a few minutes, contrary to the announcement, and are now back online. Many players continue to complain about not enjoying Patron status. This seems to be another failed attempt by Trion Worlds to comprehensively solve the issue.
Update 20:15: As the Community Manager Scapes reports, they plan to make another attempt in the coming hours to resolve the Patron issue. This is the most critical change currently underway, which is why they held discussions overnight (US time) with the Korean developers of XLGames to find a solution to the Patron problem in ArcheAge.
Original message: From 10:20 on Saturday morning until around noon, the European servers are expected to remain closed. During this time, a “possible” hotfix for the Patron issue is to be implemented.
The careful wording shows how cautious Trion Worlds has become with its phrasing. In recent days, they had announced that they had the problem under control but had to backtrack. The fix was expected to be applied during the bi-weekly European server maintenance this morning, but that did not seem to happen: the servers came back online after only one hour instead of the expected two hours, but without the anticipated hotfix.
The thread where players who hopefully had few exceptions with the missing Patron status were asked to report swelled as if a peanut allergy sufferer had accidentally picked the wrong spread.
Without Patron status, the only option in ArcheAge is to reach for the bottle
In ArcheAge, the Patron status grants doubled labor point regeneration while in-game, and at least a single regeneration while logged out. Without this status, players regenerate the essential points for progression only when they are online and since players continue to have significant issues bypassing the queues to actually log onto the servers, the problem is further exacerbated.
Paying players who were sure they could use their time in-game to pursue crafting tasks now find themselves without the necessary resources. If they want to craft, they must resort to labor potions, which either cost gold in the auction house or the premium currency “Credits” in the in-game shop.
The issues have been intensified by the fact that the first rents for houses are now due. To pay them, Patron status is required; otherwise, the painstakingly gathered farm could soon be found back in the mailbox. However, players can be reassured: they have seven days to pay the rent. By then, Trion Worlds intends to have resolved the issue.
Founders: Old problems resolved, new ones appeared
However, a fix has been found for founders who never received the title, cloak, or other benefits of their purchase. Now any founder can claim a founder pack for a single character via their account page at Trion Worlds. This allows founders who were not affected by the bug to equip another character with the cloak and other bonuses.
However, there is currently excitement on Reddit about the “10% discount” on all items in the cash shop, which was promised to founders, now disappearing from the game. Over the weekend, Trion Worlds stated it would be difficult to respond to this. However, they are confident that a solution will be announced next week that will satisfy the players. This is apparently another item on Trion Worlds’ growing to-do list, from which they hope to solve the Patron problem by this afternoon.
World of Warcraft new expansion Warlords of Draenor will bring some new things into the game that are too strong, even a bit crazy. And that is exactly the plan.
In an interview with Polygon, Cory Stockton, who is responsible for the design of the Garrison, explains Blizzard’s plans and a fresh design approach: it’s okay to risk the balance. After ten years, you can do crazy things. He absolutely expects that there will be comments about some of the new abilities and features in the Garrison like, “Blizzard is crazy! This needs to be nerfed immediately!” The forums might explode, there would be topics of discussion, that is exactly what is intended.
After 10 years, it’s okay to do something crazy
In the conversation with Polygon, much revolved around a workshop in the Garrison that introduces items that clearly “break the rules”: grenades, jet packs, and gloves that can shove enemies away.
All these things have been designed with the intention of breaking the rules that have been in place for so long. A few years ago, no one would have thought that such things would be introduced in World of Warcraft. Today, these are conscious decisions to keep the game fresh.
World of Warcraft, now master of hotfixes, takes more risks
But of course, Blizzard is already standing by with the fire extinguisher, should one of these fires really get out of control. Over the years, they have become the masters of hotfixes. And if one of the fresh Garrison items is exploited, they can fix and nerf it quickly.
When asked why Blizzard brings these items into World of Warcraft if they are going to nerf them anyway, Stockton replied, “That’s just how it works. If you introduce weak items and tell players that you will buff them later, they have already lost interest in them.” If players once believe something is bad, it stays bad. That’s why it’s better to start strong and then correct as needed.
Today, unlike the early days of World of Warcraft, it is also possible to tailor items specifically for PvE or PvP, so that an item only deals damage to enemy players or to mobs. Such possibilities were not available at the beginning. This also explains Blizzard’s new courage.
Garrison will be further refined over Warlords of Draenor, then likely abandoned
The Garrison in Warlords of Draenor will be developed throughout the entire expansion and new content will be created for it. Perhaps new buildings will be introduced, or maybe the upgrade level will go up to four.
After the expansion, the concept may be transferred to other zones. However, the currently built Garrisons will likely remain on Draenor. The follower system that is introduced with the Garrison is probably also going to be used for further expansions of World of Warcraft. Here, great potential for the future is seen.
