Edited by Hammer - Today at 10:04am

WAR Patch 1.2.1: Un faux pas

Warhammer Online: Patch 1.2.1

Even though the title of this article might lead you to think otherwise, Warhammer Online’s latest patch(1.2.1) is actually wonderful. It’s yet another great step in the right direction for EA Mythic, and a good sign of things to come. So why the title? Well, it’s french - I like it. Plus, when the patch went live, it claimed to fix a lot of things it really didn’t. Additionally, it caused a ton of problems in the game for mostly every player. Some players experienced inhumane lag, many more were being randomly kicked off to the character selection screen, fewer were just simply crashed to the desktop. For a few days after the patch released, there was a lot of anger from the community. Needless to say EA Myhic reacted quickly and was able to solve most of the issues players were experiencing on a large scale. I’ve fallen victim to being kicked to the character selection screen every once in a while since then, but not as bad as when the patch first launched.

So what did they do with this patch?

They’ve been working on addressing some of the issues caused by having too many people in one area(sieges, mainly). As all of those who have been playing know, the servers were brought to their knees when too many people started sieging cities and fortresses. There’s still a limit on how many people can participate, but rather than crashing the whole damn server, people will now start being teleported out to another area. It still sucks that there’s a limit on how many people can participate in sieges, but teleporting people out is better than having the entire zone crash.

One of the more note-worthy changes, perhaps for the lower tiers(as they are now made slightly more interesting) is the addition of several other benefits for capturing a zone. Anyone who plays Warhammer Online knows how zone locking works. Basically you get points for doing certain things in a zone: winning scenarios, completing quests, killing people in the RvR lakes, taking objectives, and you also get some points toward zone control from the previous tier. Once a zone was locked, every player in the area, whether or not they participated in locking said zone would receive a decently-sized RP bonus.

Now, the system’s been changed slightly. Zone control still operates in the same way, however, you will now receive INF and XP depending on your participation in locking the zone. For example, let’s say I join a warband and we take every keep and BO in the pairing. If we have enough points in zone control from other things(PvE/Scenarios/etc), then the zone will lock, and I will receive a huge amount of influence, XP, and renown. Now, if I only help in taking one keep, or one BO, my INF/XP/Renown bonus will be much, much less. Additionally, based on your participation you will receive a certain number of bonus medallions.

What are medallions? Medallions are part of the new token system put into place to make obtaining set items “easier.” I say “easier,” because some pieces of the set items used to cost mere gold, and wouldn’t be really hard to get. By comparison, those same pieces cost roughly 50-65 tokens now. To help put things into perspective, you get 1 token for taking a keep. If you didn’t win a bag, you get an additional token for your participation. If you do get a bag, you can choose to pull out Entangled Medallions which will convert into two medallions. So, at most, you can get 3 medallions from a keep siege. If there’s a lot of keep swapping, zone lock swapping going on, you can build up medallions really fast. Unfortunately, if there’s no action going on, you no longer have the option of fetching yourself a few pieces of gold and just buying the set item from the vendor.

Overall, the changes are pleasant. Despite the few issues when the patch originally launched, it’s brought nothing but positive changes. Although I’m a bit angry about not being able to buy set pieces for gold anymore, it evens out; I can now buy gold bag loot for tokens, if I happen to not get lucky for enough keep sieges that I manage to build up 125 tokens to trade for it.

WAR Patch 1.2.1: Un faux pas

Warhammer Online: Patch 1.2.1

Even though the title of this article might lead you to think otherwise, Warhammer Online’s latest patch(1.2.1) is actually wonderful. It’s yet another great step in the right direction for EA Mythic, and a good sign of things to come. So why the title? Well, it’s french - I like it. Plus, when the patch went live, it claimed to fix a lot of things it really didn’t. Additionally, it caused a ton of problems in the game for mostly every player. Some players experienced inhumane lag, many more were being randomly kicked off to the character selection screen, fewer were just simply crashed to the desktop. For a few days after the patch released, there was a lot of anger from the community. Needless to say EA Myhic reacted quickly and was able to solve most of the issues players were experiencing on a large scale. I’ve fallen victim to being kicked to the character selection screen every once in a while since then, but not as bad as when the patch first launched.

So what did they do with this patch?

They’ve been working on addressing some of the issues caused by having too many people in one area(sieges, mainly). As all of those who have been playing know, the servers were brought to their knees when too many people started sieging cities and fortresses. There’s still a limit on how many people can participate, but rather than crashing the whole damn server, people will now start being teleported out to another area. It still sucks that there’s a limit on how many people can participate in sieges, but teleporting people out is better than having the entire zone crash.

One of the more note-worthy changes, perhaps for the lower tiers(as they are now made slightly more interesting) is the addition of several other benefits for capturing a zone. Anyone who plays Warhammer Online knows how zone locking works. Basically you get points for doing certain things in a zone: winning scenarios, completing quests, killing people in the RvR lakes, taking objectives, and you also get some points toward zone control from the previous tier. Once a zone was locked, every player in the area, whether or not they participated in locking said zone would receive a decently-sized RP bonus.

Now, the system’s been changed slightly. Zone control still operates in the same way, however, you will now receive INF and XP depending on your participation in locking the zone. For example, let’s say I join a warband and we take every keep and BO in the pairing. If we have enough points in zone control from other things(PvE/Scenarios/etc), then the zone will lock, and I will receive a huge amount of influence, XP, and renown. Now, if I only help in taking one keep, or one BO, my INF/XP/Renown bonus will be much, much less. Additionally, based on your participation you will receive a certain number of bonus medallions.

What are medallions? Medallions are part of the new token system put into place to make obtaining set items “easier.” I say “easier,” because some pieces of the set items used to cost mere gold, and wouldn’t be really hard to get. By comparison, those same pieces cost roughly 50-65 tokens now. To help put things into perspective, you get 1 token for taking a keep. If you didn’t win a bag, you get an additional token for your participation. If you do get a bag, you can choose to pull out Entangled Medallions which will convert into two medallions. So, at most, you can get 3 medallions from a keep siege. If there’s a lot of keep swapping, zone lock swapping going on, you can build up medallions really fast. Unfortunately, if there’s no action going on, you no longer have the option of fetching yourself a few pieces of gold and just buying the set item from the vendor.

Overall, the changes are pleasant. Despite the few issues when the patch originally launched, it’s brought nothing but positive changes. Although I’m a bit angry about not being able to buy set pieces for gold anymore, it evens out; I can now buy gold bag loot for tokens, if I happen to not get lucky for enough keep sieges that I manage to build up 125 tokens to trade for it.

Bleach 217 Review

Bleach 217 was recently released and I was able to watch it just a few hours ago. The latest episode is all about the fight between Ayasegawa Yumichika and Baraggan Fraccion Charlotte Cuuhlhourne. I’m sure the writers had a blast when they were making this fight since both characters involved love themselves so much. I mean, Yumichika has those gay streaks on his hair while Charlotte is just well… plain queer. Suggest you guys still watch Bleach 217 though since it was really fun to watch these guys beat each other up, hehe.

Bleach 217 Review and Synopsis

The first 10 minutes I think of the episode was dedicated to Yumichika and Charlotte verbally abusing each other. This was the boring part but I guess several people found this entertaining. Eventually the two finally draw their swords and attack. Yumichika is surprised with Charlotte’s brute strength. He tries to block Charlotte’s first attack but the sheer force is too much for him and it sends him smashing to the ground. Yumichika recovers and challenges Charlotte to attack again and this time manages to evade him and counterattacks. Yumichika enrages Charlotte as he’s able to cut off a handful of his hair (wtf lol).

Because of this, Charlotte decides to take the battle seriously and unleashes his true form - “Reina de Rosas”, or Queen of Roses. Man… this is really sad. He looks like a gigantic man ballerina wearing a female tutu (dunno how that is spelled). In this form, Charlotte is able to trash Yumichika. He starts off with a wide version of Cero, then follows up with multiple melee attacks that sends the Shinigami crashing to the ground several times.

Charlotte picks up Yumichika’s broken body and uses his ultimate technique, a dark rose bush which covers both of them completely. Before Yumichika fades away into oblivion, he realizes that no one can see them there. He breaks free from Charlotte’s hold and releases the “true form” of his Zanpaktou - Ruri iro Kujaku (Azure Peacock). The blades of his sword become reisatsu-sucking vines that trap Charlotte. To cut a long story short, this attack does Charlotte in. Before Charlotte dies, Yumichika explains that the reason he only used the technique now was because of the dark rose bush. He never wants to let anyone see or hear of this technique. This was explained in the manga so this will probably be explained in detail in next week’s episode as well.

Over-all I liked the episode. It was boring and a bit dragging at the start but it picked up when the two started fighting. My only complaint is that Charlotte is like a Sailor Moon wannabe. He has so many gay poses before he attacks which is really annoying, lol.

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Tags: Bleach, 217, Review,, Watch, Bleach, 217,, Download, Bleach, 217,, Torrent, Bleach, 217,, Yumichika, Ayasegawa,, Charlotte, Cuuhlhorne

Massively: Star Trek Online executive producer Craig Zinkievich discusses ship customization

The concepts behind Star Trek need no introduction to its legion of fans well-versed in the various films and TV incarnations of this particular sci-fi IP. Given how zealous science fiction fans can be about continuations, offshoots, or reboots of their favorite properties, we’ve been curious about how well Star Trek Online will match up with player expectations, especially given the disappointment some Trekkie gamers have had with older Star Trek titles of the non-MMO variety.

That said, we’re always looking to find out more about what Star Trek Online will offer MMO gamers, whether they’re Trekkies or not. Cryptic Studios has been releasing bits of the game’s lore which we hope will give us an accurate picture of where the game sits in the Star Trek timeline. We’ve also came across a Star Trek Online interview that might interest you. Gareth Von Kallenbach from Skewed and Reviewed recently interviewed Star Trek Online’s executive producer Craig Zinkievich, who discusses some of the customization options that will be available to players in STO.

Continue reading Star Trek Online executive producer Craig Zinkievich discusses ship customization

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Interviews, New titles, Star Trek Online

Star Trek Online executive producer Craig Zinkievich discusses ship customization

Massively: Lineage II reactivating lapsed accounts for free in 5th anniversary celebration

We’ve got good news for any former Lineage II players out there who may have been toying with the idea of heading back in to see how the game’s changed since they last subscribed. Lineage II is letting former subscribers return to the game for free, for a limited time, in celebration of the title’s 5th anniversary.

The NCsoft announcement states: “To help Lineage II celebrate its 5th anniversary we’ve reactivated all former players’ accounts that are in good standing. This reactivation begins today [April 28th] and will end on May 11, 2009 at 11:59PM Pacific Time.” It’s a no-frills announcement really, but you can check out the details on the official Lineage II site for more info about how to get your free play time until May 11th.

Filed under: Fantasy, Lineage 2, Events, in-game, MMO industry, News items

Lineage II reactivating lapsed accounts for free in 5th anniversary celebration

Massively: Black Prophecy not playable on console at release says Reakktor CEO Kirk Lenke

One of the sci-fi MMOs we’re hearing more about is Black Prophecy from Reakktor Media, a ship-oriented space combat game. Nolvadex from Gamesource recently interviewed Reakktor Media’s CEO Kirk Lenke. He gives some basic info about the game’s backstory and some of the options available to players, as well as the company’s choice to build Black Prophecy on the Gamebryo graphics engine. Lenke states that Reakktor plans to bring a few features to Black Prophecy that should be familiar to Neocron players. He says, “Features that have been successful in Neocron will also be ported to Black Prophecy as much as they fit into the game play and render technically possible, such as the mentioned clan system.”

Lenke also specifically addresses the fact that Black Prophecy will not be available on console at release: “Originally it was planned to release Black Prophecy for PC and Xbox 360, but the console version has been stopped by our former mother company, 10tacle Studios, in the past. The release of a console version in the near future seems quite unrealistic now as the porting to the Xbox 360 is much more difficult to accomplish as it would have been in the beginning of the development,” Lenke says. “Nonetheless a console release of Black Prophecy is not completely ruled out,” adds Lenke.

Filed under: Sci-fi, Interviews, New titles, Black Prophecy

Black Prophecy not playable on console at release says Reakktor CEO Kirk Lenke

Massively: The Daily Grind: Are you playing Free Realms?

Free Realms launched yesterday after the world’s shortest beta. This morning, Sony Online Entertainment sent round an email to all beta testers (including myself) reminding us, just in case we’d forgotten, and offering a swanky in-game baseball cap as a thank you. Nice. I’ve been playing for a few weeks and can see why the game has gotten so much interest. Although I’m not sure about the freemium elements: do I really want to buy Station Cash with real, hard-earned money to purchase an ingame kitty? My heart screams yes; my head ‘misplaces’ my Amex card.

Admittedly since going from beta to launch, I’ve not logged in. I will later today and craft a new toon but I’m curious how many of you will be playing the game now it’s in the wild? Are you playing because of the hype? Are you playing because you want to introduce your kids to MMOs? Are you playing it because it’s new? Tell us, readers!

	Want to know more about Free Realms? SOE’s new whimsical free-to-play MMO is already being called a refreshing change of pace for kids and adults alike, and we have just the coverage you need!

Filed under: Fantasy, Launches, Free-to-play, The Daily Grind, Free Realms, Kids

The Daily Grind: Are you playing Free Realms?

Massively: Five upcoming MMOs with indie-cred

Eurogamer’s Oli Welsh attended the Game Developer’s Conference last month and took a look at five MMOs being produced by independent studios. Earthrise, Fallen Earth, Gatheryn, Global Agenda, and Love are all being developed without the support of a huge publisher. Given all the big budget competition, do they stand a chance?

According to Oli, Earthrise has many interesting features but with beta set for May and release set for late 2009, he’s a little concerned with the framerate issues and lack of polish. Much like its post-apocalyptic brother, Fallen Earth shines on many levels and is also due in 2009, but it is lacking in execution with animation, combat, and AI issues. As for Gatheryn, Oli is a bit confused as to why this game is even being made at all because it lacks depth and has no clear direction (here’s what we thought).

On the other hand, Mr. Welsh has high praise for both Global Agenda and Love. The former appears to be an interesting blend of adrenaline-pumping MMOFPS action with more polish than an antique car show. The latter is the brainchild of a one-man army, giving it the most indie-cred out of all the titles.

For a more in-depth explanation of his opinions, follow Oli as he takes a journey through the MMO’s wild frontier.

Filed under: At a glance, Fallen Earth, Opinion, Global Agenda, Earthrise, Love

Five upcoming MMOs with indie-cred

Massively: A Quota of Quests

The big Guild Wars 4^th Anniversary patch arrived a few days ago and brought all sorts of presents for the currently playing pseudo-subscribership, including a special island for Rangers to keep their pets on, new equipment packs for weapon and armour storage, extra unlockable bank box tabs, character makeover services and more, along with the reactivation of various festival mini-games during the anniversary festivities.

Perhaps the most significant of the new features added this patch was the introduction of the new Zaishen Challenge Quests at the Great Temple of Balthazar. Three new banners now offer tasks which change every day; a particular highlighted mission, a bounty on a specific named boss, and a specified type of PvP challenge. In exchange for completing these tasks, new Zaishen Coins are offered, which can be exchanged for item rewards of varying quality. Daily Quests have arrived in Guild Wars.

Continue reading A Quota of Quests

Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, Quests, Opinion

A Quota of Quests

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