Earthrise Posts New HTML5 GUI


Let’s talk about the dead coming back to life. Some of you may recall a long time ago in a galaxy not so far away, that Earthrise shut down due to a lack of funds to fully bring the game over to a free to play platform. If you don’t remember, just re-read that last sentence until it sticks. Got it? Good. While Earthrise had a great PR department selling the game before it launched, the product that shipped barely made a dent in its pre-release hype. In fact, it barely made a dent in anything. After Earthrise released, it virtually vanished off of the face of the MMO press, showing up every now and then to let everyone know that the servers were barren and so were the coffers at Masthead Studios. Major problems from lag, disconnection issues, crashes to desktop, and the actual content of the game kept Earthrise from reaching its potential, and finally the game choked to death on a pretzel with the sound statement that one day, a generous necromancer known as SilentFuture would raise it from the dead.

In the original notice, Earthrise 2.0 was planned for a quarter four 2012 launch. It is probably safe to say that we’ll be looking at a 2013 launch, but just to keep the players satiated for the time being, the above screenshot was posted in an announcement that Earthrise will be using an HTML5 user interface, rather than Flash. Not necessarily the best update possible, but a positive sign that the folks at Silent Future haven’t fallen into the same black void of development that has devoured, say, the guys working on Earth Eternal’s reboot.

Then again, one could say that any news on Earthrise is good news at this point.

DUST514 Sutures Itself To Eve Online Slightly More


Good news everyone! As the DUST 514 beta continues trucking along its path towards release, CCP has added regular updates to bring the Playstation 3 shooter closer together with its older PC sci-fi MMO brother. With the release of Codex, the latest major update to the MMOFPS, players in both games will now find their experiences much tighter. Codex allows players to appoint directors in both games to keep watch on corporate activity. Corporate contracts allow Eve Online players to hire DUST 514 players to take over territory held by rival corporations. While not released with this update, CCP teases orbital strikes, allowing players in Eve to fire down on the planets below and affect the operations of their DUST counterparts.

The update also brings in a host of new content, from female avatars to new weapons and equipment, new maps and environments, and more. DUST is still in beta testing, and players can get in by registering and hoping for a key or buying the $20 mercenary pack. and obtaining the key that way.

(Source: DUST 514 Website)

Darkfall: Unholy Wars Releases Details, Wipe Confirmed


Darkfall: Unholy Wars launches at the end of November, and Aventurine is letting the details flow free. In a post on the official website, Tasos Flambouras starts off with the question many have been asking ever since Unholy Wars was still Darkfall 2010: Wipes. Short story, they are coming. Darkfall and Unholy Wars are two separate games, which presents the problem of compatibility between the two systems.

Assuming we forced things and made it possible, the DFUW characters would completely destroy the Darkfall Online characters, and I make this comparison to also give you a practical idea of the incompatibility.

Luckily, players won’t have to worry about the grind. According to the blog, players will have no problem becoming viable. Also, Darkfall Online (the current edition) will be shut down to make room for Unholy Wars. Anyone who already bought Darkfall will not have to purchase Unholy Wars. There are plans for Darkfall-related side projects, and characters from the current game are being kept for such a purpose.

(Source: Unholy Wars Website)

Kickstarter Updates: Old And New


1. SideQuest: Unfunded

If SideQuest does end up being funded successfully, I will gladly tip my hat and sell MMO Fallout to the highest bidder (minimum bid starts at $400,000), but with fifty hours left to go as of this publishing and only sixteen hundred collected of the ten thousand required, the prospects are looking bleak. If you haven’t been paying attention to previous Kickstarter articles here at MMO Fallout, SideQuest is an indie title in development by Fractal Entertainment as a free to play MMO. The game touts a fully immersive single player story as well as party based combat, player vs player, and a full collectible card game.

So why will SideQuest come away from Kickstarter with a low 15-20% of its goal? Perhaps it was the note that Fractal Entertainment doesn’t really need your money in order to make SideQuest a reality, the game is going to be completed no matter what the outcome of the Kickstarter funding. So rather than donate to ensure that the game sees the light of day, players are more likely to withhold their cash, regardless of the rewards offered, and wait and see if SideQuest is worth paying into in the first place.

2. Project: Gorgon

Finally an MMO for people who don’t want their hand held. Project: Gorgon aims for the old school MMO crowd, for players who desire a game that rewards exploration, an MMO that requires you to think before you act, and more importantly: An MMO with a crafting system. So Project: Gorgon aims to bring back the best of the old school (including being able to drop items on the ground and have them actually appear, apparently) with the new fangled contraptions like questing and guild mechanics. Players will have to deal with permanent, game altering changes, including being bitten by a werewolf and having to choose between rushing to find a cure or allowing their new found powers to consume them.

Oh and you can change into a cow, and provide your milk to other players. No, I’m not joking.

Fallout MMO Back On The Table? Zenimax Working On F2P MMO


It’s been a while since we’ve had an opportunity to talk about the long dead Project V13, since January when Bethesda won its lawsuit against Interplay and subsequently terminated the Fallout MMO. Meanwhile, Zenimax Studios continues its long development of The Elder Scrolls Online, an MMO adaptation that has left fans curious and the media rather underwhelmed. But with the lawsuit now over and done with, players want to know: Will we ever see a Fallout MMO?

The answer is possibly. Rich Vogel, formerly of Bioware, has joined Zenimax Studios under a brand new development team, Battlecry Studios. So far Zenimax has only commented that the team is working on an unannounced project, however job listings at Battlecry are looking to fill the position of monetisation designer. The MD’s jobs entails designing an economy around the unannounced game, managing prices of virtual goods and maintaining a balance between the free and paid currencies.

Now remember that there is no specific mention of Fallout anywhere, but with The Elder Scrolls already undergoing the MMO treatment and Bethesda’s determination to grab the MMO rights back from Interplay, it stands to reason that this could be an online Fallout title.

Global Agenda Was Not Financially Successful, GA2 In The Works


It looks like Darkfall won’t be the only MMO getting a revamp in the next year or so. In a post on the Hi-Rez forums, Shadow Control discussed the current iteration of Global Agenda, as well as the future of the brand. In the post, he reveals that while Global Agenda was not a financial success, the team learned a lot about the game, lessons that eventually made their way into Tribes: Ascend. But as he points out, Tribes is more of a niche-oriented brand, geared towards a far more hardcore audience than Global Agenda.

The majority of the responses was to release a new version of GA ‘GA2’ with a PvP focus and make that as good as possible. So we are currently in the process of making that game. We will use a lot of the GA assets, some of the maps, and some of the game modes. We plan to add new maps, game modes, class weapons, and build it all on our newest platform.

Hi-Rez hopes to have Global Agenda 2 in beta sometime mid-2013. Whether or not Global Agenda will remain operational after the launch of its sequel will have to be seen. Hi-Rez is also working on its MOBA title, SMITE, as well as continued support for its first person shooter, Tribes: Ascend.

(Source: Global Agenda)

NCSoft Tried Selling City Of Heroes, No Buyers


It’s been over a month since NCSoft announced that City of Heroes would be shutting down, and since then the community has thrown virtually every theory out there as to why there hasn’t been any news from the talks with Paragon Studios.  The question that lays on everyone’s mind is: If NCSoft isn’t willing to keep the game running, why didn’t they try selling the studio/game? As it turns out, they did try. In an announcement on the City of Heroes website, NCSoft offers a small bit of detail on what went down.

We’ve exhausted all options including the selling of the studio and the rights to the City of Heroes intellectual property, but in the end, efforts to do so were not successful. City of Heroes has a special place in all of our hearts, and we want to ensure its reputation and the memories we share for the game end on a high note.

So there is some kind of reassurance that NCSoft at least made an attempt to save City of Heroes. It may not be the answer that they want to hear, but it is an answer nonetheless.

(Source: City of Heroes)

Funcom Reverses Layoffs, Anarchy Online Engine Update, Steam


You were paying attention when Funcom stated that the layoffs back at the end of August were temporary, weren’t you? In the latest Flash Point podcast, Joel Bylos went on to explain that the rehiring process has already begun, with three of the ex-Funcom employees brought back to the team. On the end of The Secret World, Funcom will continue its tactic of monthly issue updates, adding in a wide range of new content to the MMO.

In other Funcom news, Anarchy Online is coming to Steam. In the monthly update post over at the Anarchy Online forums, Producer Ilaliya explains that the Steam-compatible version of Anarchy will be available as soon as a few kinks are worked out, some to do with in-game bugs dealing with the Steam overlay, the other to do with internal scheduling over at Valve. Additionally, the long awaited upgrade to the Dreamworld Engine for Anarchy Online is coming along, with public beta testing to start hopefully early next year. This upgrade will bring with it a multitude of changes to Anarchy Online on a graphical and functional level, including the ability to add armor as additions to a character rather than the old painted on look.

(Source: Flash Point Podcast)

(Source: Monthly Development Update)

The Future of RuneScape: Jagex Talks RuneScape 3


In a recently released live Q&A, Jagex talks about RuneScape 3, the next iteration in the RuneScape development line. Noting that the Evolution of Combat update coming later this year is not the same as RuneScape 3. Instead, Jagex views a set of benchmarks as what would constitute RuneScape 3, being an overhaul in the overall experience. Over the next couple of years, the aim is to improve the experience in audio, graphics, the interface and world map, among other features. With the introduction of HTML5 support, coming soon, is that the game will look and sound better, as well as run smoother than the current Java platform.

Unlike when Jagex introduced RuneScape 2, and allowed players to continue playing RuneScape Classic, RuneScape 3 will not leave behind RuneScape 2 servers. The reason is that RuneScape Classic to RuneScape 2 was such a massive update to the game that Jagex could not seamlessly bring players over, where as RuneScape 3 is seen as a natural progression of the game. There are no plans to release classic versions of RuneScape 2 servers. Additionally, Jagex is actively working on getting RuneScape working on additional devices, aiming at possibly next year.

A lot of what Jagex talks about is still rather cryptic. Among the features teased are the ability to gather items during normal game play to offer up to a player’s chosen god. The details are scarce but it seems to imply that some form of factional system is coming to RuneScape, allowing players to choose which gods they want to support. Another goal is to make player vs player combat more enticing, especially to players who normally would not bother with the activity. Additionally, there are two skills as well as player owned shipping ports coming next year.

There is plenty more to find out in the video, which is well over an hour long.

(Source: RuneScape Q&A)

Working Out A Bounty System


A bounty system is to sandbox MMOs like peanut butter to fluff on a sandwich perhaps with a glass of cold milk on the side (soy or almond if you prefer). While the sandbox purists will say that developers should just allow players to run their own bounty system, because risk is just part of the experience, having some infrastructure in-game can be very helpful without restricting freedoms. Ensuring the person claiming the bounty actually made the kill, and that the bounty holder must pay up.

But it feels like the developers are just setting themselves up for abuse with current bounty systems, so I’d like to offer a few of my own thoughts on a bounty system. They are just my thoughts, they could be wrong.

1. Money In, Money Out.

I think most players will agree that a bounty system is specifically a player to player affair. I hate you because you kill me a lot, you talk crap in chat, or perhaps you just crossed an angry person with a lot of expendable cash. So I’m not entirely sure why some MMOs don’t have a 1:1 input to output ratio on bounty levels.

As a gamer, I take issue with government subsidized murder to deal with personal squabbles. If xXx Leg0la$ xXx wants me dead because I stuck my sword in his head and stole all forty of his apple pies, he can do so without asking companies like Aventurine to help him buy a bounty hunter, ie: my friend who kills me and splits the reward. Even more importantly, removing the glut will prevent people from using the bounty system to get rich, with the money coming from nowhere.

Ultimately, a bounty system should be a transfer of wealth, not a generator of it. It should act as an arbiter, essentially, to prove the kill and distribute the reward.

2. The Bounty System Will Be Gamed, Regardless.

How do you keep someone like myself from gaming your bounty system? Simple: You can’t. And that is something that developers will need to understand going forward if you’re going to make this an enjoyable system and not a convoluted, overreaching and unenjoyable mess. A bounty system is a social system, and you’re up against geniuses in social engineering.

But even on a 1:1 ratio as mentioned above, you won’t stop the system from being gamed. When a player has a bounty on their heads, they will simply allow themselves to be killed by a clan member and split the profits. Prevent their clan from gathering the reward? They will set up a mule, outside of the clan, to get the kill. Allow only trusted/known people to gather the reward? Well then you’ve just negated the point in making the system official, if the person is known well enough that they could just as well be trusted on the honor system.

And enough on gaming the bounty poster, what about the bounty pursuant? Set up a clan member as a trap by throwing a massive bounty on his head, and when lone hunters show up to kill him, the group jumps out and just thrashes him. In RuneScape they do something like this by having everyone stand on one square, giving the illusion that there is only one person.

So your system is going to be gamed, one way or another, but at least in the world I’ve created it isn’t being abused to generate wealth out of nowhere.

3. Have Some Fun With It.

Here is my ideal bounty system for a game like Mortal Online or Darkfall. Players naturally drop something identifying when they die, let’s say their head or a finger. Whatever the object is, it decays and disappears after a short period of time, let’s say 24 hours from the time of death, to prevent players from gathering them in large quantities and simply hoarding them until the appropriate bounty is posted.

I, as the bounty poster, give my bounty notice and reward to the broker, we’ll call him that creepy guy in the back alley on the edge of town. You, as the hunter, go to him to see who is on the menu. When you kill your target, gather his head/finger as proof, and bring it to the creep, he pays you the reward. And naturally you are free to keep the loot from the person you killed as an extra reward.

Simple, minimalist. An NPC to act as an arbiter and nothing more.