Massively multiplayer online RPG Rant

BioWare details SWTOR Companions News | MMO | Eurogamer.

It seems the SWTOR team are adding companions with their own story-line and complete voice acting, is it me or is this geared towards a single player experience, I have a bad feeling Bioware don’t know what they are doing on the MMO front and have made some dreadful design decisions.

Read the Eurogamer preview and decide for yourself…

Blizzard is significantly altering the 10 existing World of Warcraft classes in upcoming expansion Cataclysm, introducing new spells, abilities and talents as well as altering those already present.

The developer has previewed changes for all but one of the classes, the Paladin, which will be detailed on 16th April. Blizzard didn’t want to offer a less “comprehensive” preview and so delayed the reveal to “properly honour the Paladin class and those who play them”.

There are some broad changes going into effect. Mana is going to be a much greater consideration for healers and Blizzard hopes this will result in less frenzied, spammed healing and more thought-out strategies. Similarly, Mages will have abilities that do more damage depending on the amount of mana they have, and even abilities to return mana should a spell not hit. Cheats. Dispel mechanics are changing, too.

Blizzard is also doing away with various superfluous class abilities and is removing the “on next swing” melee mechanic and making abilities instant (but more costly) in response. Also, weapon specialisations are being removed for all classes.

All classes will be given three to four new high-level spells or abilities and new talents. But, as Blizzard pointed out, all of these are subject to change during testing.

Read more here WOW Cataclysm class changes detailed News | MMO | Eurogamer.

Due to be released in Q2 of 2010, Fallen earth Patch 1.4 is looking to be very exciting for PVP. with new zones, an achievement system, mutant mounts, read on..

We’ve released some information on exciting gameplay features and additions forthcoming in patch 1.4 and 1.5, but we’d like to take a moment to explain some of those in greater detail. Originally the new content area Deadfall was to be released with patch 1.4, and then a truckload of PvP elements in 1.5. As development progressed, it turned out that we’ll be able to release both of these amazing feature sets in one mongo patch, 1.4. Scheduled for Q2, the patch will include new arena-style PvP areas, a new content area called Deadfall, mutant mounts, an achievement system, conflict town upgrades, and clan wars as well as continued optimizations and improvements.

Blood Sports, our new arena-based PvP, will provide players with a chance to participate in four different PvP events: Deathmatch, Assault, Survival and Capture the Flag. These games are designed for solo or group play and are competitive for both ranged and melee combat styles. Players can sign up through a world-wide queuing system in game. The matches will be held in specially-designed levels, complete with yelling announcers and Deathtoll points. Merchants throughout the arena also carry a horde of new PvP-oriented armor and gear.

The Deadfall area will provide more than 140 new missions and explorable area for players as well as a level cap bump from 46 to 50. The area unfolds the mysteries of LifeNet and provides a chance to learn more about Shiva’s Favored while allying with them for a few special missions. Five new settlements dot the area, including a Shiva’s Favored encampment and the ruined city of Los Alamos. The area also features six new instances, including an opportunity to help the Grahams reclaim LifeNet facilities and stop the Shiva’s Blessed from fulfilling their plans.

If it sounds like there’s a lot of area to see… well, there is. But at least the ride will be an enjoyable one, since players have the opportunity to help allies and earn a Blight Wolf mount. One of our favorite creatures in the game, the Blight Wolf is pretty huge and awesome and will be comparable to a horse in terms of storage, speed and food.

In addition to the arena action, we’ll be breaking out with expanded world PvP in Clan Wars. Clans will be able to declare war with each other based upon a start date and time, set duration (or point value), and a war roster. Players will also be able to wager on the winner for some additional chips. Once wars are declared, members of each clan’s War Party will be able to kill each other at will through the entire world. No PvP zones can contain these conflicts. Several challenge-based mechanics will up the ante and give each side the chance to make things personal. Combined with a cleanup pass at our conflict towns, this should give more clearly defined avenues for both clan and faction based conflicts without forcing them to overlap.

Additionally, we’re working on several smaller improvements, which will be staged out over the next few patches. The animations team is hard at work redoing all melee animations to provide a more crisp and responsive feel. We are also in the process of implementing sculpted terrain, which will give the game a much more realistic, detailed environment. The effect system is being revamped to address stacking imbalances. The new streamlined system will make it easier to understand and use. To facilitate these changes we will be providing all characters with a one-time respec (finally! . Rifles and one vs. two handed weapons will see more balancing efforts as well.

Slated beyond the upcoming patches, Sector Four is already in development. We know it may seem like a myth, but it’s real—and we’re sharing a sneak peek of the concepts with you. In Sector Four, players experience a much more intimidating environment. GlobalTech conducted some pretty scary biological experiments in this new area, and the power of nature is evident in how the plants have taken over buildings and even entire cities.

With so much going on, and so many exciting things ahead, we are excited about the work we’re doing and we look forward to getting your feedback. Thanks for being such an awesome community and for your support and suggestions.

-Ilkor & The Fallen Earth Team

To be filed firmly in the who cares category, there will be two new races in the upcoming WoW expansion later this year, Werewolves, and goblins.

Be still my beating heart!

So what a fiasco,

Issue: The Open BETA asks you to download the full 3.6 GB Files even with the 2.02 GB install (at 20 – 40K per sec)

Then an official work around is published (Which is wrong)

Here is the fix, dont copy the *.piggs files into the /prepatch directory copy them to /piggs dir, then you only need to patch 900MB.

The shit patch program will still stall a bit but just restart and eventually it will finish.

Amazing poor start, things can only get better (shudder)

Well Champions Open BETA is now patching 30 minutes before Open BETA live, but the patch size is 3.5 GB which is crazy, oh well !

UPDATE: After 25 minutes of download only 1%, which is lets say less then ideal, at this rate the open BETA will be finished before its patched

Complete and utter b*llsh*t !!

UPDATE 2: This fairly sums up the attitude on the forums (posted by someone on the Champion forums);

Not impressing me? I left my house at 2% patching to go get my $5 back from Best Buy. I get back, and its only at 5%.

Sorry cryptic. Theres no excuse as to why a file thats been sitting on fileplanet for two weeks needs to be patched by 3.6 GB

The last week’s hotfixes maybe, but three gigs? Bill Roper, you’ve done it again. How’s Hellgate London these days?

1. Power Armor
2. Sorcery
3. Supernatural
4. Might (Super Strength)
5. Light
6. Force
7. Lighting
8. Psi/Ego
9. Darkness
10. Shadow
11. Martial Arts – Single Blade
12. Martial Arts – Unarmed
13. Edge weapons
14. Claws
15. Fire
16. Ice

There are 3 type of active skills in the game: CLICK, CHARGED, MAINTAINED

For CLICK = There in only one option. You click and forget
For CHARGED = If you only click once (aka tap), you get the TAP effect. Whereas if you hold button, you CHARGE.
For MAINTAINED = You hold down the button, and as long as its “charging” you continue to deal damage or whatever. The spell is cast DURING the cast, not after it.

Well just in case you did not hear, the still birth which was the matrix online has finally been laid to rest after just over 4 years. People may complain about SOE but at least they supported the game and gave it as much time as they could given the very poor launch.

I played Matrix online for about 2 months, I felt it was one of the most broken MMO’s I have ever played, the core design was utterly boring, combat only marginally interesting, quests, oh go to another house and kill more agents, I never went back.

‘On August 01, 2009 at 12:01 AM the Matrix Online servers were shutdown’.

R.I.P Matrix Online