MMOrning Shots: Village of Heroes


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Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from Mad Otter Games, whose free to play title Villagers & Heroes is now available on Steam. Players are encouraged to cooperate in this MMO with player-created towns and sandbox-style crafting. How do the towns work, you ask?

The towns of Villagers and Heroes are not merely set-pieces. They are dynamic and ever-changing. Through the teamwork and contributions of players, crafting stations will rise, homes and fields will flourish, and new quests will be revealed.

Check out MMOrning Shots every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and new screenshots will be revealed.

Broadsword Aims For Steam


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Broadsword Online is continuing its work to revitalize Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot, with the announcement that it is seeking to have both titles released on Steam. Players can put their vote in at the links below. There will be no cost to buy a base game for either title, however both still carry a monthly subscription fee.

Check out either title at their respective links.

(Source: Ultima, Dark Age of Camelot)

Guild Wars 2 Rolls Out Megaserver Tech


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Arenanet has rolled out the first areas for the new megaserver technology. As reported a couple of weeks ago, today’s patch saw the launch of new megaserver technology in Guild Wars 2, allowing players to fight alongside each other in certain zones regardless of their home world. No more dead zones and no more overflow.

The update is still in the process of being rolled out. The following zones have been activated at the time of this publishing. Check out the forum post here for more details.

  • The Grove
  • Heart of the Mist
  • Black Citadel
  • Timberline Falls
  • Southsun Cove
  • Rata Sum
  • Straits of Devastation
  • Fields of Ruin
  • Brisban Wildlands
  • Hoelbrak
  • Iron Marches
  • Blazeridge Steppes
  • Dredgehaunt Cliffs
  • Lion’s Arch
  • Lornar’s Pass
  • Kessex Hills
  • Diessa Plateau
  • Metrica Province

MMOrning Shots: Ten Years of DOFUS


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Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from DOFUS, which is celebrating ten years of being online this year.

MMOrning Shots isn’t ten years old, but you can still check it out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Darkfall Lays Out Vision and Direction


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Aventurine has announced today that the developer has realigned itself to get back on track with their original vision for a sandbox PvP MMO where risk dictates reward and massive battles carry more meaning. As part of its realignment sessions, Darkfall will undergo a series of updates over the coming weeks. Top priority is the release of custom roles, allowing players to mix and match their skills, armor, boosters, etc, without being penalized. Armor will affect abilities in various manners, but it will no longer block abilities.

Next up, Aventurine is working on rebalancing the economy, going over every monster and resource node to see where improvements can be made. New higher tier tools will be launched alongside special resource nodes, with the whole shebang expected to launch over several updates. Third on the list are proper siege engines. Towers, catapults, and more to assist players in taking and holding territory. And finally, last on the list revealed is a robust quest system, a method to introduce players to the game’s lore and help new players learn the ropes.

The first update, introducing custom roles, is set for “very soon,” with the rest to follow.

(Source: Darkfall Press Release)

Face of Mankind Open Beta Starts April 18th


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Following its successful Kickstarter campaign and closed beta testing period, Face of Mankind will be entering open beta on April 18th according to the latest announcement by Nexeon. Players eager to get in can register their account and start downloading the client now.

On April 16th, we will be wiping the Closed Beta and giving our dedicated testers and backers early access to the game. As there will be no wipe during Open Beta, we felt it was important to make sure this promised reward was delivered prior to Open Beta to ensure the largest impact.

Check out Face of Mankind at the link below.

(Source: Face of Mankind)

MMOments: Elder Scrolls Online Part 2


eso 2014-04-12 09-28-21-28 Despite some setbacks, my time spent playing The Elder Scrolls Online hasn’t exactly diminished over the past week or so. I find myself dropping the game for the day due to quest-breaking bugs quite often, but it always seems that they are fixed by the next time I log in. I keep going back to my newly purchased Playstation 4, but I find that experience even worse with Warframe and Blacklight Retribution both plagued with bugs of their own. With that in mind, I don’t think that I am even close to the burnout point with ESO.

At this point, Razum-Dar has easily become my favorite character in the game. If you don’t know who this guy is, Razum-Dar is a Khajiit and agent for Queen Ayreen, that players will interact with a lot in the Aldmeri Dominion quest chain. Whenever my character wakes up in Jail, Razum-Dar is no doubt not far behind and in the process of murdering every single guard to secure my freedom. The quests and their stories are, without a doubt, fantastic.

In one storyline, for instance, I wound up uncovering a training academy that was treating its trainees like slaves and, in some cases, murdering those who act out of line. In another, I uncovered the secret behind an entire village turned to stone. The conclusion will surprise you. eso 2014-04-12 09-32-26-74

The more that I play The Elder Scrolls Online, the more I get used to the floaty, not-100%-accurate combat. You get used to the fact that the game provides some lenience for lag which results in wider hit cones, or how magic attacks are auto-aimed. The issue with bugs in Elder Scrolls is one that varies from day to day. Mostly the instances of broken quests, NPCs, or missing nodes is dwindling. It seems like whenever the game does break, now, the bugs are worse. The loading screen stuck in a never ending cycle, crashes to desktop, being thrown out of the world, falling under the map, etc. Items disappearing from banks, the works.

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Keeping interest in the war in Cyrodil is difficult, and I will admit that this is my sore loser side talking. The Daggerfall Covenant on Skull Crusher has completely rolled both of the other factions to the point where you can see below that they are nearly one hundred thousand points ahead of both of us. Turns out that Zenimax’s prediction that balance would be kept by the two losing factions ganging up is complete bunk, at least as far as my campaign goes. My faction isn’t even showing up anymore. I can’t even get the 15,000 alliance points needed to change campaign.

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It is rather disappointing because, for Elder Scrolls Online, a disappointing campaign lasts three months. The good thing is that there is so much to do in The Elder Scrolls Online that I can pretty much ignore the PvP for the time being, between questing and exploring, completing achievements and finding treasure chests.

Ever since the last MMOments article, I only had one instance where I was ready to throw my computer out the window, and it is a quest in the Aldmeri Dominion campaign where your companion turns into a werewolf. Some combination of bugs and lag resulted in the most frustrating fight I have ever experienced in this game, where he was hitting me from across the room, cone of fire attacks would simply auto-target me even if I was directly behind him and nowhere near the area of effect, blocking was not working, and I would randomly go from half-health to dead instantly. Frustrating, yes.

The next MMOments that I run for Elder Scrolls Online will be in about a month. For now, this will continue to be my primary MMO.

MMOrning Shots: Final Fantasy XPSIV


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Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from Square Enix, marking the launch of Final Fantasy XIV on the Playstation 4, not to be confused with the upcoming remake of Final Fantasy IV on the Playstation 14 set for release in 2078. If you have a Playstation 4 and enjoy a good MMO, grab a copy at your local retailer. If you don’t own a Playstation 4, you might not find much value in the disk. If you bought FFXIV on the PS3, you can go ahead and upgrade to the digital version for the PS4 at no additional fee. This offer is only valid until the end of December.

Check out MMOrning Shots every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Or don’t, I’m not a cop.

World of Darkness Cancelled


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CCP has officially announced that World of Darkness has been cancelled. Some of you may remember that, last month, CCP’s annual financial report stated that the company had written off a piece of software as no longer having any value. It looks like that property was World of Darkness. In his note accompanying the announcement, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson states that the team was unable to deliver the experience that they wanted, and as a result development has ceased and some 56 employees have been laid off.

The decision to end the World of Darkness MMO project is one of the hardest I’ve ever had to make. I have always loved and valued the idea of a sandbox experience set in that universe, and over the years I’ve watched the team passionately strive to make that possible.  To our current and former employees and fans of World of Darkness, I am truly sorry that we could not deliver the experience that we aspired to make.  We dreamed of a game that would transport you completely into the sweeping fantasy of World of Darkness, but had to admit that our efforts were falling regretfully short.  One day I hope we will make it up to you.

To those of you keeping a magnifying glass on World of Darkness, this news should not come as a shock. Between multiple layoffs and comments that World of Darkness was very low priority for CCP, with nothing to show for so long, it was only a matter of time before CCP cut their losses and moved on.

(Source: CCP)

Development Ceases On Pantheon


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Visionary Realms has announced that development on Pantheon has slowed to a halt, noting that the initial funding has been depleted and the studio can no longer guarantee paychecks to its employees. The post on the official website states that development has “slowed down,” while a tweet from KTAM Radio that was retweeted by Brad McQuaid states that development has ceased.

You heard it on #KTAMRadio first: @PantheonRotF to cease development due to lack of funds. Will resume when funding increases/resumes.

Visionary Realms is currently seeking investors for Pantheon. Any donations made until such funding is received will go towards keeping the website up.

(Source: Pantheon)