Massively: Behind the Curtain: The role you play
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Classes, Culture, Expansions, Game mechanics, Opinion, Behind the Curtain
This week, I’d like to talk a bit about how taking a look at how you play a game, and which class you play, and maybe choosing to change one or both can pay dividends. Before I do that though, I would just like to mention that I did finally manage to get hold of Baron Rivendare’s mount after 68 runs - my thanks to all of you who shared similar stories in the comments of last week’s column. Or at the very least, my thanks to whatever Blizzard GM read my whinings and took pity on me, if that’s what happened. Apart from Keith. Ten runs, two mounts and one sword? Keith, I’ll be hunting you down…
Massively: Tabula Rasa honors biggest fans by naming in-game items after them
Filed under: Sci-fi, Screenshots, Culture, Events, in-game, MMO industry, Patches, Opinion, Tabula Rasa
As I mentioned in an earlier post regarding Tabula Rasa’s Deployment 16 hitting the test servers, one interesting feature included with this patch was this tidbit: 40 unique weapons named after players. This might be something you glanced over as you searched for more info on the PAUs, but this simple addition has made so many people excited, including myself. The official list of immortalized players hasn’t been released yet, but from the buzz at the PlanetTR forums, the ones who were honored are quite happy. I’ve skipped the plural narrative here to gush a bit about how much something like…
Continue reading Tabula Rasa honors biggest fans by naming in-game items after them
Tabula Rasa honors biggest fans by naming in-game items after them
Leipzig Games Convention 2009 cancelled
Now don’t go thinking this is another one of those depressing economic news - it’s not. It’s just your average depressing video game convention news, like E3. A press release just went out announcing that this year’s Leipzig Games Convention has been canceled, mostly due to another trade fair, GamesCom, being held on the same weekend in Cologne.
In place of the Leipzig Games Convention, they will be holding an event called Games Convention Online, which the PR holds to be “the first independent platform in Europe for what is currently the most dynamic market in the gaming industry: browser, client and mobile games.” It will take place from July 31 to August 2.
That doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of Leipziger Messe though. According to their CEO, they’re still raring to work with the gaming industry: “If the industry is again in search of a platform for console and PC games and hardware with the know-how of the GC - Games Convention, we will immediately be available.”
Related Articles:
- Leipzig: Games Convention 2009 dated, GC 2008 sets record
- Leipzig: video game awardees for Best of Show in GC 2008
SOE: EverQuest possible for the PlayStation 3
Did you know that the EverQuest MMORPG for the PlayStation 2 is still running? Did you even know it existed? Anyway, that’s besides the point. Those who missed out on the PS2 version might get a chance to experience it on this get. SOE prez John Smedley has suggested the franchise might find its way to the PlayStation 3:
EverQuest Online Adventures on PlayStation 2 is still operating to this day. There aren’t a ton of people playing it — I think we were about two years [too] early for that. We released with the launch of the PlayStation 2 network adapter, and I think we were a little early to market with that one.
[...] We are committed to doing PlayStation 3 and PC games. We want to see our users be able to access stuff from as many places as possible.
If they are seriously considering to take EverQuest to the PS3, it’ll join a bunch of other MMOs that they already have lined up for the console, like Free Realms, DC Universe Online, and The Agency. Anyone hyped up for them? I’m feeling they’re taking too long to show any of their stuff.
Related Articles:
- NCsoft to deliver four exclusive PS3 MMORPGs
- EverQuest II, where girl gamers go to avoid testosterone
- SOE: PlayStation 3 MMOs will be huge
Ragnarok 3rd Job Arch Bishop - PVP/PVE Powerhouse?
We’ve tackled the Rune Knight and the Warlock. Now, I’d like to talk about the first healer / support 3rd Job Class that’s on the kRO Server - the Arch Bishop. Based on my research, Gravity basically enhanced their support skills, added more anti-Demon/Undead abilities, and some Physical Damage skills for PVP. I’ll discuss some of the new skills and share with you guys a video about the Arch Bishop after the jump.
Notable Arch Bishop Skills
Lauda Agnus: Cures status effects Freeze, Petrification, and Blind from all party members.
Lauda Ramus: Cures status effects Sleep, Stun and Silence from all party members.
Clearance: Affects all party members and enemies on screen and removes all of their buffs, debuffs, and status ailments.
Silentium: Strikes all enemies in range centered around your character with the skill ‘Lex Divina’.
Praefatio: All party members receive the protection of the skill ‘Kyrie Eleison’ from the caster.
Adoramus: Strikes a single target for damage with a powerful holy light that also causes blind and agility down effect. This skill consumes 1 blue gemstone. If the caster is standing next to another priest type character however, the gemstone requirement is negated, but the other priest incurs a portion of the SP casting cost.
Judex: A magic attack that deals holy attribute damage to a target and all targets in the surounding 3 cells.
Buffing has definitely been made easier. Arch Bishops can buff everyone in their party and don’t have to cast blessing on every single person anymore. They can also do mass-dispels of status effects and event clear the entire screen of buffs and debuffs in one go. I honestly cannot see good PVP or even PVE without a solid Arch Bishop helping out the team.
Here’s a video that I found on Youtube. It shows most of the offensive skills of the Arch Bishop. The first skill is probably Adoramus, a skill that deals holy and physical damage. The problem with this skill is the really insane cast time. The second skill that kills hordes of undead is Judex - a stronger and more efficient version of ME.
Lakas! 
MMORPG - Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games : WotLK Raiding
Author: imperial23
Subject: WotLK Raiding
Posted: 28 Jan 2009 at 6:52am
@ Sarah –> So I defaulted the game last night, turned off my add-ons, let the patch of the patch patch (or something like that) install. I also turned off the names and realized that it’s much better like that visually anyhow, no more green text filling my screen.
Anyhow, we start to clear the arachnid quarter, and somehow I manage to not drop below 15 FPS, and that was the very worst of it, 10-20 spiders up, with 5-6 people AŒing. Get to Anub’Rehkan and pull him, and same thing, my FPS is fine.. Never did I choke down to 1 or lock up for 2-3 seconds while everyone is casting, etc.
So I figure I’ll start slowly turning add-ons back on before each boss fight. I now have everything turned back on, except atlasloot, atlas, deadlyboss mods. We cleared Arachnid with only a couple wipes to the 2nd boss, her name escapes me (our priest had never MC’d the adds before). Walk through the plague quarter with no issues. Then 1 shotted patchwerk and had to call it a night. It was an awesome run, and the worst I saw was about 12 FPS on patchwerk, which recount was the last mod I turned on.
I don’t get it at all. I have no clue what basically fixed it. I did toggle names also, and it still didn’t matter. I have no clue if Blizzards patch actually addressed some issue, or if defaulting the game settings did it. I feel like one of my customers now (I work tech support) I ask for help claiming I have some major issue, get some advice and magically it starts working… 
Sodius, if you choke down to 1 FPS like me, try defualting all the game setting and turning off name plates just to see.. But I’m still looking at an upgrade, but now I can at least wait a bit, use my tax return money.
DSnewb, I feel the exact opposite about the game play, I personally enjoy the raid envinroment and the team work it takes to down a given boss. I just couldn’t get into Arena or other PvP, I just didn’t see the point, got tired of getting stomped into the ground by any team with a pally or druid. Mana drain, kite around the pole, ok I’m bored…
DC Universe Online vs Champions Online
Back in early 2004 the first superhero MMO, City of Heros created by Cryptic Studios, was released and from what I can remember with decent reviews. The game has done pretty well peaking around 200,000 users at its height and as of Sept 2008 had around 125,000 subscribers. Not a huge success by any means but enough for other developers to throw their hat into the superhero MMO rink.
Marvel at one point had a deal with Cryptic Studios to create Marvel Online, but has since been canceled. Instead Cyptic is now working on Champions Online, the unofficial sequel to City of Heros/Villains. Then we have Sony (SOE) working on DC Universe Online. Considering the age of CoH it’s about time we had a new superhero MMO on the market.
DC Universe Online
From what I’ve read and heard about this MMO it’s sounding pretty good, but there’s still not enough information out there for me to get really excited. Here’s a quick list of some of the key features.
- Highly customizable characters. You can even base them off of DC characters with 1 click of a button, then modify them if you want.
- PvP Combat in a Open World.
- Quests are called Cases and Capers depending if your a Hero or Villain.
- Fighting along side or against some famous DC characters. Superman, Batman, Joker, etc.
- Environment Manipulation, stuff like throwing cars
- Fast Movement/Traveling, depending on your powers
From those features nothing really jumps out at me as ground breaking. I think the most interesting is how the Cases and Capers are going to work. Basically if you’re a hero you might get a case where you have to protect someone, but a villain might get a caper where they have to kill that same person. So now you have a quest that turns into a PvP fight, which sounds pretty cool to me although I’m not exactly sure if that’s how these quest will work. I do know that I’d much rather be fighting a real person then NPCs all day. For a peek at the actual gameplay, checkout this video out at Allakhazam.com.
Champions Online
- Cross-Platform gaming between X-box360 and PC
- Highly customizable characters
- Your own Nemesis! A villain the becomes part of your storyline
After watching the gameplay and interview with Design Director Bill Roper on G4, I was not very impressed by the game. (Videos: Part 1, Part 2) In fact it game looked pretty boring. Being a big fan of PvP I wasn’t able to find much about how Champions will handle PvP, but from my search I get a sense that this game will concentrate more of PvE sorta like LoTRO. Another thing that struck me as I watched some of the footage is that it doesn’t really feel like a Superhero game. I mean “Monster Island”, sorry but is this Godzilla? I don’t want to fight random monsters on some random island, I want to be in a big sprawling city where most comics take place. Looking through the sceenshots at Champions-online.com I don’t see one city pic, only forests, mountains and indoor locations. To be honest, nothing at all about this game made me interested in it.
Even thought both games are pretty far from release, I’m definetly in DC Universe’s corner right now.
DC Universe Online vs Champions Online
Back in early 2004 the first superhero MMO, City of Heros created by Cryptic Studios, was released and from what I can remember with decent reviews. The game has done pretty well peaking around 200,000 users at its height and as of Sept 2008 had around 125,000 subscribers. Not a huge success by any means but enough for other developers to throw their hat into the superhero MMO rink.
Marvel at one point had a deal with Cryptic Studios to create Marvel Online, but has since been canceled. Instead Cyptic is now working on Champions Online, the unofficial sequel to City of Heros/Villains. Then we have Sony (SOE) working on DC Universe Online. Considering the age of CoH it’s about time we had a new superhero MMO on the market.
DC Universe Online
From what I’ve read and heard about this MMO it’s sounding pretty good, but there’s still not enough information out there for me to get really excited. Here’s a quick list of some of the key features.
- Highly customizable characters. You can even base them off of DC characters with 1 click of a button, then modify them if you want.
- PvP Combat in a Open World.
- Quests are called Cases and Capers depending if your a Hero or Villain.
- Fighting along side or against some famous DC characters. Superman, Batman, Joker, etc.
- Environment Manipulation, stuff like throwing cars
- Fast Movement/Traveling, depending on your powers
From those features nothing really jumps out at me as ground breaking. I think the most interesting is how the Cases and Capers are going to work. Basically if you’re a hero you might get a case where you have to protect someone, but a villain might get a caper where they have to kill that same person. So now you have a quest that turns into a PvP fight, which sounds pretty cool to me although I’m not exactly sure if that’s how these quest will work. I do know that I’d much rather be fighting a real person then NPCs all day. For a peek at the actual gameplay, checkout this video out at Allakhazam.com.
Champions Online
- Cross-Platform gaming between X-box360 and PC
- Highly customizable characters
- Your own Nemesis! A villain the becomes part of your storyline
After watching the gameplay and interview with Design Director Bill Roper on G4, I was not very impressed by the game. (Videos: Part 1, Part 2) In fact it game looked pretty boring. Being a big fan of PvP I wasn’t able to find much about how Champions will handle PvP, but from my search I get a sense that this game will concentrate more of PvE sorta like LoTRO. Another thing that struck me as I watched some of the footage is that it doesn’t really feel like a Superhero game. I mean “Monster Island”, sorry but is this Godzilla? I don’t want to fight random monsters on some random island, I want to be in a big sprawling city where most comics take place. Looking through the sceenshots at Champions-online.com I don’t see one city pic, only forests, mountains and indoor locations. To be honest, nothing at all about this game made me interested in it.
Even thought both games are pretty far from release, I’m definetly in DC Universe’s corner right now.
Ragnarok 3rd Job Warlock Sprite and Skills Video
Okay, enough on melee classes. Today I’d like to discuss one of the most powerful arcane job classes coming to Ragnarok Online - the Warlock. Judging from the initial skill list, it looks like Warlocks will really be a force to reckon with since their spells now cause various status effects on a massive scale (AoE). I can’t imagine how War of Emperium will be if there are Warlocks on the battlefield. In terms of job character sprites, the Warlock looks kick ass. The flowing dark robes gives them a very mysterious and powerful aura that I’m sure all male gamers want, hahaha. Anyway, I’d like to share a video with you guys I found on Youtube. It’s basically a Warlock demonstrating all the skills. You can get a lot of insights from this especially if you’re a Wizard. Watch the video after the jump!
Ragnarok Online 3rd Job - Warlock
The Tetra Vortex really looks like it will be one of the most casted spells in the game. Other than the damage, this skill also applies various status effects on all those affected. My only worry here is the cast time. It looks like it will take a few seconds to get this off.
Tags: Ragnarok, 3rd, Job, Warlock
Radioactive-Software, by dgreen02
Well I guess I’ll start out with the pictures, and hope you’ll stay around for the Audio stuff lol.
<b>Respawn Bunker/Forcefield</b>
I literally just came up with this little forcefield effect a few minutes ago, I think it’s pretty cool. Basically if you’re inside the forcefield you can’t take damage but you can shoot out @ people…it’s a way of preventing spawn/base camping.
More importantly I’ve received the respawn bunker from one of my contract artists, David Miranda. He did some work for me on Urban Empires, so I picked him to design the main base/respawn bunker that will be used in the game.
I need to write a custom set of interior shaders / multiple spot light / shadowmapping / etc. for the inside of the bunker…so it will probably be a day or so before I can get some interior screenshots of the bunker.
Here are some shots of the forcefield and the bunker in-game, etc…
*NOTE THESE SCREENSHOTS WERE TAKEN WITH TEXTURES AT AT 25% RESOLUTION.
<IMG SRC=”http://www.radioactive-software.com/images/Forcefield3.jpg” border=”0″></A>
<IMG SRC=”http://www.radioactive-software.com/images/Forcefield4.jpg” border=”0″></A>
<IMG SRC=”http://www.radioactive-software.com/images/Forcefield1.jpg” border=”0″></A>
<IMG SRC=”http://www.radioactive-software.com/images/Forcefield2.jpg” border=”0″></A>
<IMG SRC=”http://www.radioactive-software.com/images/Forcefield5.jpg” border=”0″></A>
Here are some images of the bunker w.out the forcefield…
<IMG SRC=”http://www.radioactive-software.com/images/Bunker_no_FF1.jpg” border=”0″></A>
<IMG SRC=”http://www.radioactive-software.com/images/Bunker_no_FF2.jpg” border=”0″></A>
<IMG SRC=”http://www.radioactive-software.com/images/Bunker_no_FF3.jpg” border=”0″></A>
Here is what the bunker looks like inside the unreal3 engine.
<IMG SRC=”http://www.radioactive-software.com/images/Respawn_bunker_unreal3.jpg” border=”0″></A>
<b>XAudio & Cross platform audio creation tool (XACT)</b>
I’ve never used this library before but I only had a FMOD license for Urban Empires, not this new project…so I had to switch sound libraries.
Surprisingly it only took probably 4-5 hours to get it into my engine, and take out the previous two sound libraries I had in there.
I’d gone from DirectSound->OpenAL->FMOD->XAudio
I think XAudio is my favorite so far. Though it lacks the incredible functionality of FMOD, the ability to use the XACT tool to author sounds outside the game is awesome. I can test out how the thunderstorms will sound, I can adjust the volumes on different types of explosions…it’s really great.
I was planning to go into a lot of detail about how much I love this setup, but I’ve been working foreeever and now I need to play some Counter-Strike lol 
Here is an image of the Cross Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT), setup for my current ’small project’…
<IMG SRC=”http://www.radioactive-software.com/images/XACT1.jpg” border=”0″></A>
Until next time…
- Danny
