Update – Page 118 – MMO Fallout

Darkfall Lays Out Vision and Direction

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)

Darkfall Welcomes Players Back For March Update

Aventurine recently launched its March update, bringing with it weather effects, masks, clan markets, and more. To give players more of an incentive to join back up, Aventurine has invited beta players for two weeks of free game time. Eligible gamers should have already received an email by the time this article is published, so make sure you check your inbox/spam folder. To take part in the beta, simply send an email or support ticket with your username and “Returning Beta Player” in the subject line. We managed to have our account enabled around fifteen minutes after sending in the ticket.

The two week offer expires April 4th. Current subscribers can sign up for a six month package at 45% off.

Aion 4.0 Launches

Aion’s massive 4.0 update, Dark Betrayal, launched earlier today and promptly broke everyone’s client. Due to an unforeseen issue, the new Aion launcher was taken offline for several hours of extended maintenance today when it became apparent that critical client files had gone missing from the download, resulting in players receiving a corrupt version incapable of downloading the rest of the patch. Technical oversight, or viral marketing for Dark Betrayal? Today’s update brings with it, among other changes, the introduction of two new classes to Aion: The Gunslinger and Songweaver. Players are encouraged to create new characters to test the new classes out.

Also part of the update includes additional incentives for players to join the Asmodian side. The Asmodian faction has had a historical deficiency in population on several servers, so in order to entice players to even the sides, characters on said faction are able to obtain rewards simply for leveling up on those servers. Characters on the servers Tiamat, Siel, and Israphel are the target of this campaign, however the update does not give retroactively to players who have already leveled past the rewards.

Perhaps now is a good time to bring back Aion’s test server?

(Source: Aion)

Old School Servers Are Here To Stay

RuneScape’s Old School server has been up and running for a few months now, with Jagex offering continuous updates to fix bugs and add in small features voted on by the community. One of the big questions that players have had since the servers launched is how successful they would be, what Jagex would ultimately decide about the possibility of an additional membership to play, and whether or not the servers would attract enough players to keep them operational.

Today Jagex released a developer blog for Old School titled “here to stay.” Players should be happy to know that the servers will remain online for years to come and, at least for the foreseeable future, will not require any additional cash.

When Old School RuneScape launched we said access would be included as part of membership for the first 6 months, and then we’d review the pricing. We’ve made that decision now, rather than wait for September… There will be no increase in cost for the foreseeable future and we aren’t planning to review the pricing again for at least the next year, if not much longer. You will be able to access both Old School and the main game for the price you are currently paying for membership.

Jagex is continuing to work on client stability, banning bots, and more.

(Source: RuneScape)

APB Details Upcoming Spawn System Changes

Ever since Reloaded Productions took over All Points Bulletin and relaunched it as APB: Reloaded, the team has been hard at work addressing reverences from the community, whether related to driving, threat systems, lag, and now the spawn system apparently. In a recent blog posting, the APB team discusses the current manner in which players respawn after death, and the troubles associated with the current formula. As the blog lays out, the current system often leaves the player far out of the way, the same spawn point, or right on top of your enemy.

In an upcoming update, players will be able to enjoy Elective Spawning, effectively the same system but instead of automatically spawning at the “best” point generated by the system, players will have a number of spawn points available to choose from. You will also be able to view where other dead teammates have opted to respawn, in order to better coordinate during public matches. Players will also be able to modify vehicles to allow their teamates to spawn inside of them, given certain conditions are met.

You can read all of it at the blog post below:

(Source: APB Reloaded Blog)

The Old Republic Introduces Cathar Race

Star Wars: The Old Republic continues chugging along with new content updates. With update 2.1, players will be able to customize their looks at the new Appearance Designer Kiosk. Players will be able to change the look of their eye color, body type, hair style, and are even able to recolor their armor. What’s more, gamers will even be able to go the extra mile and change their species completely. And what better way to introduce this feature than with the release of the Cathar species? The Cathar catlike race possess powerful melee abilities in the world of Star Wars, including the ability of rapid healing. How much of that translates into the game will be seen.

CCP Expanding DUST 514 With Uprising

CCP’s shooter DUST 514 is currently in open beta, although the game is technically operating in a live environment and has been officially attached to the main Eve Online universe. CCP continues to expand the ability of players on both games to interact with the world on a massive scale. Along with the regular course of updates, CCP has announced Uprising, an upcoming expansion to DUST that focuses on several core features of the console shooter. Uprising brings with it a graphical upgrade, as well as new weapons and equipment. Player corporations can take over territory and planetary districts, all of them existing in the Eve Online universe.

“We reached a momentous milestone in January when DUST 514 and EVE Online became one and formed the largest single-shard MMO universe in the world,” said Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP. “Now our teams will continue to lay down more tracks between EVE Online and DUST 514 which will then be galvanized by our players every step of the way, inspiring us to go ever further.Uprising brings new features to drive meaningful human interaction, beautiful new visuals to astound, and increased ease of use, an important step in the journey.”

There are plenty more updates coming to DUST as it continues its open beta period.

(Source: CCP Press Release)

Jagex Opens (Limited) Members Skills To Free Players

In 2012, Jagex opened up a 14-day free trial for free to play players. The account is limited in regards to trading and acquiring items, and once the 14-day free trial ends, any items that are members only are unable to be used until that player purchases a subscription. With today’s release of the March developer blog, Jagex has announced some upcoming changes to the way free players are able to experience membership without the need to actually pay. Instead of a 14-day trial, free players will have access to a limited amount of the members world, as well as very limited access to members skills.

Talking of free players, we’re changing the trial system so that new players once again start off as a free player. To do this, we’re making Burthorpe and Taverley part of the free game, as well as the associated quests and training areas within it. We are also allowing free players to train members’ skills up to a maximum of level 5, giving them a taster of the kind of content there is on offer for players who subscribe.

The blog post also details Jagex’s continued fight against player-run gambling outfits.

Other alterations we intend to make this month are changes centred around the flower games and associated ‘risk’ gameplay that currently dominates the Grand Exchange. Exactly what these changes are and what form they take is going to be up to you – we’ve built a variety of solutions from rules changes, content changes and even our own versions of the games – and we’re planning on chatting to you to work out what solution works best for the community. Keep an eye on the news for details.

You can find the full list of scheduled updates for March at the link below.

(Source: RuneScape)

Jagex Bans 20,000 In Botwatch Update

Last year RuneScape saw the first stages of Botwatch, a new system designed to end the constant game of cat and mouse between Jagex and gold farmers, and put an end to the rampant cheating, spam, and gold sales once and for all. Instead of altering the game’s code, Botwatch was designed to learn over time how bots behave, and learn the difference between human behavior and those dictated by machine. Botwatch is capable of banning on its own volition, and thus must be tuned to ensure no false positives are detected.

In a recent update to Botwatch, the program banned over twenty thousand accounts accused of gold farming:

We recently introduced the next phase of our anti-bot technology Botwatch, and it’s already showing its teeth in the battle against botting activity in RuneScape. Last night alone, we conducted a mass ban of no less than 20,000 gold farming accounts. This is a huge blow against gold farming, and you should see the difference in game right away. These new anti-bot systems aren’t limited to gold farmers, however – users of 3rd party clients and botting software are also being aggressively targeted by the newly updated Botwatch.

Last year Jagex introduced Botany Bay, where players can watch first hand as bots are executed and banned.

(Source: RuneScape)

[DC Universe] SOE Working On US PS3 Server Issues

Larry Liberty, who is in fact not a super hero himself but the Executive Producer for DC Universe Online, has stepped up to the forums today to issue a notice for players of DC Universe, specifically those who play on the PS3 servers in the United States. Due to heavy load brought on by the launch of Home Turf, the US PS3 server has been experiencing some unplanned downtime and instability, as well as a few other unforeseen issues. Sony Online Entertainment is working diligently to fix the issues brought forward during yesterday’s mishap and may have to bring the server down again.

You can read the full letter below:

I just wanted to apologize for the unplanned downtime on the USPS3 server. Server population has been exceptional since the launch of Home Turf, and it’s brought to light two issues that only happen under very high load. We have addressed one of them already, and are investigating the other. We will be bringing the server back up with an update that will address several issues that were surfaced yesterday. Release notes will accompany the update with more information, but there are a bunch of fixes and polish work as well based on community feedback. One change I wanted to call out was the reduction in the cooldown timer on Base relocation. We’re changing it from the initial 7-day cooldown to 1-hour. It may be necessary to come down for an additional server update today. We’ll monitor load, and broadcast warnings in-game.

(Source: DC Universe)

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