News – Page 392 – MMO Fallout

DarkScape Drops High Alchemy

High alchemy is a spell in RuneScape that transforms items into cash, at the cost of fire and nature runes and with the benefit of being a potentially fast and profitable way of training magic. Incidentally, the spell has also been the root cause of much of RuneScape’s inflation in the past, a problem that the DarkScape team hopes to rectify with today’s update. DarkScape players logged in today to find that high alchemy has been removed from the spell book, although its limited uses still exist on the explorer’s ring.

Jagex has talked recently about how DarkScape’s new economy allows them to make more drastic changes to the game that wouldn’t be possible in RuneScape 3 or Old School. Considering the more hardcore nature of the game, Jagex plans on introducing a variety of extensive changes to fit the existing game around the new structure. Whether or not something will be introduced to replace high alchemy will be seen.

(Source: DarkScape)

Albion Online Introduces Auction Bidding For Housing

Albion Online is ditching its upkeep system in favor of a new way to keep you paying for your plots of land. Initially, plots of land will be considered unclaimed until a player puts down a bounty of silver to take over ownership. After a set amount of days, generally one or two months, the plot of land will come up for auction during which other players can outbid you for your plot. If another player wins the plot, they take over not just the land but the buildings that were erected there by the previous owner.

The good news is, the owner isn’t completely out of luck. For starters, owner bids count as double, so you only need half as much money to fend off competing bidders. Secondly, land owners receive a compensation based on the value of the buildings on their land should they lose the bidding war.

The goal of this new system is to prevent a constant blockade of building plots – and also to give players joining Albion Online later a fair chance at owning a desirable building space. Theoretically, players now can purchase any plot – as long as they are able to outbid the previous owner. With this change, we want to encourage a more fluid market and also bring some additional „economic PvP“ into the game.

(Source: Albion Online)

Star Citizen Threatens Lawsuit Against Escapist Magazine

If you haven’t been paying attention to the ongoing drama surrounding Star Citizen, the public spat between Chris Roberts and Derek Smart has expanded to include a very critical article published, and subsequently backed up by, The Escapist. The article alleged discriminatory practices at CIG against racial minorities, enforced by Roberts’ own wife, that Roberts himself would routinely insult and demean employees, and that the company was “bleeding money and employees.”

Chris Roberts responded to the article by, naturally, blaming Derek Smart, and taking the time to dig up dirt on the article’s author to engage in personal attacks.

I know you say that “none of these come from Derek” but we both know that’s not true. You are quoting the exact same things in your email he has spewed in his blogs and twitter for months. If you want me to give you links to the exact same claims (which are patently UNTRUE) I can but we both know it’s coming from him and the few people he’s rounded up.

Derek Smart’s name, despite having no part in the creation of the Escapist’s article, comes up more than 20 times in Roberts’ response. Roberts also pulls from other unrelated events, including Gamergate, Randi Harper, and Brianna Wu.

In an update posted to the response page, Cloud Imperium Games has made it public that they intend to take legal action against The Escapist, maintaining the claim that the article was a conspiracy between the author and Derek Smart. CIG has demanded a public apology from The Escapist, as well as an apology to their HR department and an investigation into how the article was approved. Otherwise the developer intends to take legal action.

Normally, we would keep this behind closed doors, but we felt it was imperative to put our statement on record and indicate how disgusted we are with The Escapist’s irresponsible actions. Corporate at Defy Media asked us to delay publication of this letter while investigating, but we feel strongly that the record needs to be set straight without further delay.

As noted in the letter, anything expressed should not be construed as a complete statement of the facts.

(Source: Star Citizen)

Jagex Reveals 2016 Update Schedule

Runefest has come and gone, and with it has come the reveal of Jagex’s plans for RuneScape in 2016. Announced at Runefest and posted on the official website, Jagex’s stated goal next year is to make each update significant, and to involve players in the release schedule.

First, we want to change how we update the game, giving you more bang for your buck. Each month there will be a major release – something you can really get your teeth into. To support this, we’ll still have smaller, regular updates, keeping the game ticking over smoothly.

Updates next year include a new God Wars dungeon, a complete redesign to the mining and smithing skills, the conclusion to Sliske’s story line, new Barrows content, and more. Also up for release in 2016 is the NXT client, as announced one year ago, ushering in better performance, faster loading, and farther draw distances, as well as better graphics. More raids, more bosses, and more quests accompany the release of Invention, the first elite skill to be added into RuneScape.

Invention is similar to Dungeoneering in that it will draw from other skills and can be leveled up to 120. 2016 also marks RuneScape’s 15th anniversary, an event that the company hopes to celebrate in a big way.

(Source: RuneScape)

Dragon’s Prophet Shutting Down In November

North American players will no longer have access to Dragon’s Prophet after November 16th, as Daybreak has announced that the service will be coming to an end. While the game will still be available in Europe and Asia, there are no plans to allow players to transfer their characters over to these other publishers. In the announcement, Daybreak thanked the community for their support.

We are extremely grateful to all the Dragon’s Prophet community members and appreciate the support we’ve received from each and every one of you. We plan to make additional seasonal content and items available during the final weeks of the game and hope you enjoy them.

If you look back at the past year or so, the signs of the demise of Dragon’s Prophet are likely written on the walls. Dragon’s Prophet was suspiciously left out of the Daybreak All Access pass, leading many to speculate that Daybreak would ultimately be parting ways with Runewaker.

(Source: Dragon’s Prophet)

Not Massive: Direct2Drive’s “Trigger Warning” Sale Week

Direct2Drive is running a sale this week dubbed the “Trigger Warning Week,” guaranteed to save between 50% and 80% on all titles. The library of games promises to be the “most inclusive, diverse, & empowering titles” available on PC. Among the list of games on sale, gamers can find Psychonauts, several Bioshock titles, Metro, Saint’s Row the Third, Borderlands, Deus Ex, among others.

While there are plenty of great games to grab, Duke Nukem Forever at its 75% off, $4.99 price tag should be considered armed and still overpriced for its quality.

(Source: Direct2Drive)

Derek Smart, Indie Devs, And Death Threats

As those of you who follow my Twitter account (see right hand side of page) know, I spent a good part of last night following up on a story that broke earlier in the day yesterday. Derek Smart, game developer and ex-Star Citizen pledge, posted via social media that he had received a death threat over his continued criticism of Chris Roberts and the handling of Star Citizen’s development. While death threats have become common enough that the media pretty much glosses over them these days, the source of the threat was even more interesting.

The email, posted in full by Smart to social media, originates from an sae.edu email address owned by Carlos Bott, mobile developer and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland. Smart also posted the raw data from the email to show that it did indeed originate from the SAE servers. MMO Fallout was able to corroborate via a third party source who wished to go unnamed that the email did originate from SAE’s servers likely using Google Apps to manage their email.

MMO Fallout reached out to Bott, who has fully denied sending the email in question. Judging from my contact with both parties, it seems very likely that this could break out into legal action in the near future. For our readers, we suggest not jumping to conclusions or presuming guilt until more details can be shared.

Any further information will be covered as it arises.

Archlord 2 Shutting Down

Webzen has announced the impending sunsetting of Archlord 2. The servers for the PVP-centric MMO will shut down in approximately two months, on November 24th. Archlord 2 initially launched in 2014, giving it a much shorter run than its predecessor which ran from 2005 until 2014. The sequel was heavily criticized during beta for poor server performance, bugs, and a heavy emphasis on pay to win cash shop mechanics.

Players are not fully without recourse, however, as plans to reimburse Wcoin spent since April are under way.

Depending on the amount of Wcoin spent, players will be reimbursed up to 100% of the Wcoin they spent during the last 6 months of Archlord 2, going back to April 1st 2015. The Wcoin reimbursement is currently scheduled to be completed by October 7th 2015.

To send players off in style, Webzen will be running game-wide buffs as well as reducing the cost of the cash shop goods to 0. These changes take place after Tuesday’s maintenance.

(Source: Webzen)

DarkScape Knocks Out Griefing Via Patch

In my tips for DarkScape, I made note for players to be aware of a griefing method where players repeatedly run into a bank, only to be immediately killed and explode, doing damage to those in the bank. In fact, the latest update to RuneScape addresses several points in my article. In addition to adding a toolbelt to mitigate the need to buy/haul your crafting tools around, Jagex has added mechanics to prevent one form of griefing:

The guards are also wising up to some of the methods players have been using to avoid punishment – watch this space!

According to players on the forums, guards will now use smite against the players they attack, draining their prayer instantly and preventing them from using retribution (explode on death) and keep item (allows players to keep an extra item on death).

(Source: RuneScape)

Live Stream Q&A With R.A. Salvatore On 9/22

Perfect World Entertainment has announced that this Tuesday, players will have the opportunity to question R.A. Salvatore himself. Salvatore is the New York Times bestselling author known for his Dungeons & Dragons novels, including the character Drizzt Do’Urden. The upcoming expansion for Neverwinter, Underdark, features Salvatore’s character quite extensively.

As we know, many of our adventurers have traveled across an eternity of campaigns in D&D, so our live stream will be a Q&A session for and by the community. We’ve heard many a tale of how Salvatore’s stories have inspired or changed your lives, which makes us all the more excited to host this stream. This is your chance to not only ask any questions you may have about his novels, characters or writing process, but also a chance to show him how far his influence has reached.

Players are encouraged to leave their questions and comments in the official forums, which will be answered in the live stream on Tuesday.

(Source: Neverwinter)

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