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RuneScape Beta Introduces Combat Tweaks

A news post has appeared on the RuneScape website detailing large updates coming to the game’s Evolution of Combat system. Currently in beta testing, the updates include adding weapon-specific special attacks back into the game as abilities. Also on the table is a function to queue abilities, action bar setups, quickly change loadouts, as well as multiple smaller changes.

These are some of the larger features we’re working on, but there are plenty of smaller improvements coming up too. With these changes, we hope Evolution of Combat will be more appealing to all types of players, adding more depth for experts, while making it more accessible to those just starting out. But that’ll be for you to decide.

Players interested in testing out the upcoming changes and giving their feedback can log in to the RuneScape beta servers, which you can find on the main website. The combat beta does not affect your progress in the live game.

(Source: RuneScape)

Videos Now: Everquest Landmark Crafting

Everquest Next Landmark looks better with each passing video. Today the folks at Sony Online Entertainment dive into crafting, detailing how players will go about obtaining recipes and crafting items. Learn about altars and recipes and the secret meaning of life. Hint: It is corgis.

Alganon Expansion Hits January 28th

After a long time waiting, Alganon’s expansion Rise of the Ourobani will be releasing next week on January 28th. Developed by 3000AD, Rise of the Ourobani introduces a third faction to Alganon with the interesting twist that, rather than opposing both factions, the Ourobani will aid whichever side happens to be losing at the time in the ongoing war. As the tides turn, allies become enemies as quick as the drop of a hat. The expansion also introduces flying mounts, hired mercenaries, and a new class: The warden. The warden is a ranged class capable of taming pets and transforming into one of a few different animals with respective abilities making the class something of a cross between the hunter and druid from World of Warcraft.

The expansion will have a price, which has not been revealed at this time.

MMOrning Shots: Running To Wurm

Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from Guild Wars 2 and ArenaNet, to show off the Origins of Madness update that will already be live by the time this article goes up. The first update of 2014, Origins of Madness will task players with taking on Scarlet Briar, arch-villain of the game.

MMOrning Shots shows off interesting games and locales, and can be seen here at MMO Fallout every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. To submit your own MMOrning Shot, send an email to contact@mmofallout.com.

Free to Play Drew $2.8 Billion In 2013

Super Data Research is a group that provides market intelligence in the online, digital, and mobile games industry. The numbers for 2013 have been released, detailing the estimated sales for mobile, free to play, and subscription based titles. Free to play was dominated by Crossfire and League of Legends, bringing in a combination of nearly $1.6 billion.

Social games dropped 21% over last year, with the US hitting an average of $50 per paying user spent. Free to play games brought in $2.8 billion, an increase in total revenue despite a decrease in monthly active user count. Pay to play, on the other hand, brought in $1.1 billion in 2013, down nearly 20% from 2012.

Unsurprisingly, the top free to play earnings chart was dominated by the usual titles: World of Tanks, League of Legends, Lineage, World of Warcraft, The Old Republic, and Crossfire.

(Source: Super Data Research)

Lineage II Top Reward Costs $200k Within A Year

As I always start these types of articles: If you are the type of person who is willing to spend five or six figures in a video game, why not take a little bit of that money and invest it in something more sensible, like MMO Fallout? Everyone wins. You get to keep spending insane amounts of cash on virtual goods, and we have more capability to tell you where you can spend a lot of money. Lineage II has revealed the hero coin program, allowing players to earn rewards for the simple act of spending their cash. The way the system works is simple: For every 80 NCoin you spend in Lineage II, you receive one Hero Coin that can be saved up and spent on items in the reward store.

Here’s where the deal gets controversial. First, Hero Coins only accumulate on the character that the item was redeemed on. Secondly, Hero Coins expire on the following January 1st of every year. There are items on the cash shop that translate into well over $30 thousand being spent on the game in a single year, with the most expensive item going over three hundred grand. You can laugh and, when you come to the realization that at least one person will hit that transaction mark, slowly dissolve into tears.

(Source: Lineage II)

Brad McQuaid Responds To Vanguard Criticism

Brad McQuaid is seeking eight hundred thousand dollars via Kickstarter for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, and not everyone is falling over themselves to hand their money over. For many, the disastrous launch of Vanguard is still fresh on their minds, an event that is causing them to be less than confident in Pantheon’s prospects. One gamer, Clmeas left the following comment on a Kotaku article promoting the Kickstarter.

Microsoft gave him $40,000,000 to make Vanguard with almost absolute creative control and he still released an unfinished, buggy, POS of a game after 5 YEARS in development.

The comment garnered a response from McQuaid himself, noting some of the challenges that Vanguard faced in its development from internal and external sources.

Microsoft funded us to almost $30M, after which there was a regime change at Microsoft and virtually all of the people we had been working with disappeared. The new people didn’t want to make Vanguard… they really didn’t want to make an MMO at all, and if they were, they wanted a Wow-clone-beater. We broke away from them and I turned to SOE and got them to fund as much as they could. Unfortunately, it fell short of the 6 months we needed, and the game was released too early.

WoW came in around $80M and they took at least 3 years to develop it (probably more, but 3 years after they *announced* the game — I have a feeling they were already working on it).

Star Wars: The Old Republic took at least 3 years, had hundreds of people involved, and cost between $150M and $200M (no one really knows for sure except the publisher).

Anyway, just some numbers for perspective. In any case, Vanguard was released too early but if you go check it out now it’s a solid game. The world is underpopulated but beyond that I’m still very proud of what we accomplished.

It’s good to see that McQuaid is proud of what Vanguard has become. You can check out the Kickstarter for Pantheon here or follow the link on the side-bar.

(Source: Kotaku)

Less Than Massive: The Cost of Theft

Silicon Knights is something of a hated company here at MMO Fallout. Those of you who have followed the developer likely know that Silicon Knights licensed the Unreal Engine to develop their games, and back in 2007 launched a lawsuit against Epic alleging that the latter was unable to provide them with a finished development kit in a timely manner, instead choosing to funnel its money into the development of Gears of War and Unreal Tournament. In the lawsuit, Silicon Knights noted that they were forced to develop their own engine to prevent even further delays of Too Human.

Somewhere along the line, it was discovered that Silicon Knights had stolen chunks of the Unreal engine to create their own system, a wholesale copy and paste that even included developer comments and typographical errors present in Unreal. According to one report, 20% of the Unreal Engine was found in the Silicon Knights engine. Epic Games countersued, during which Silicon Knights actively attempted to cover up their actions, and the courts awarded them $9.2 million in damages. Silicon Knights appealed the ruling, however a judge has struck down that appeal. Denis Dyack, former President of Silicon Knights, went on to Precursor Games, the latter of which disbanded last September after a failed Kickstarter campaign for its game Shadow of the Eternals.

On the other hand, if you do have a copy of any of Silicon Knights’ games, hold on to them. Unsold copies of the games that used portions of stolen Unreal code, including Too Human, were destroyed as part of the lawsuit, meaning any remaining copies are sure to be worth something, especially if you find them still wrapped.

(Source: Eurogamer)

MMOrning Shots: A Head of the Curve

Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from Sony Online Entertainment with Dragon’s Prophet. Sony’s upcoming mounted combat update might be exciting, but it’s nothing to lose your head over. Did I say that out loud? I apologize.

Archlord: Shutdowns and Mergers

As Archlord continues its shuttering, the sequel doesn’t seem to be faring any better. Last month, we reported that Archlord would be shutting down its global servers on January 1st, and MMO Culture is reporting that the Korean server will also be closing. Citing an inability to “provide players with a stable environment,” Webzen announced that Archlord’s final territory will be shutting down on February 13th. According to MMO Culture, Archlord II hasn’t been seeing a great response. Currently in open beta, Archlord II has been heavily criticized for latency issues, poor game design, and heavy pay to win features.

The MMO reportedly merged down to two servers, with players still having trouble finding parties. Archlord II is set to head westward at some point in 2014.

(Source: MMO Culture)

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