Allods Online

Allods Online has always laid claim to having a robust system of vehicle customization with its astral ships. The upcoming skirmish available in the next patch takes that vehicle affection to the next level with the battle of Summerhold. Players who take part in this conflict won't be fighting a PvP objective but will instead be piloting a variety of vehicles to take out a rampaging prototype weapon controlled by a goblin.

The vehicles are each laid out with strengths and a few crucial weaknesses to force players to work as a team; the high-damage artillery unit can't open fire unless the nimble spotter gets up close to the prototype, but of course the spotters will be ripped apart without a defensive line, and so on. Based on how fast the prototype unit is taken down, players will be awarded a variety of medals which can be exchanged for prizes including minipets and vanity items. If you're looking forward to vehicle-based mayhem, take a look at the full rundown for all the details.

Every six weeks, another Massively writer takes over Choose My Adventure, a column that asks readers to vote in polls to determine what the writer will play and do within the reader-selected game. The columnist bravely plunges into the role you design, even when you sadistically vote that he or she play a naked blue Gnome who fights in melee with guns and is forbidden to leave PvP battlegrounds except to craft cookie dough. That doesn't usually make for the best showcase of a game, which you're quick to tell us when the writer has a scattershot experience at your bidding.

Today's Ask Massively is all about the Choose My Adventure series and finding order in its chaos.

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Crafting professions in Allods Online are getting quite a revamp with Patch 3.05 at the end of this month. Following in the footsteps of the Alchemy changes, all professions will be merged with their appropriate gathering counterparts to make for a more self-sufficient process. According to the dev notes, "the skill of their new merged profession will be based on the highest of the two that are being combined."

Other changes made to crafting with this patch include simplified profession leveling progression, an improved crafting interface, tool upgrades, crafted armor, and more. The point of the crafting changes revolves around the idea of making armor that is more easily obtained for those players who put time into crafting and adventuring.

Patch 3.05 is set to release on October 30th.

It's finally time for my second round of Choose My Adventure. The last time I helmed CMA, Lineage II was top pick, and I had a lot of fun with it. I took tons of screenshots and video to keep you in the loop as to my progress, and you can expect the same, whichever game is chosen this time.

MJ's turn with The Secret World was a lot of fun to read and follow. She even livestreamed some of her shenanigans... I mean, adventures. You can bet I'll be playing with one finger over the PrtScn button and livestreaming some of my adventures as well. I hope to make this a multimedia extravaganza of epic proportions.

Take a look through your choices and vote, vote, vote. And make sure to get those votes in by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday the 21st!

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In celebration of autumn, gPotato has released new screenshots that show off fall colors and the new female character models. Check them out, along with other Allods images, in the gallery below.

[Source: gPotato press release]

Female Xadaganians in Allods Online are in for a treat come patch 3.05. The devs recognized that the characters didn't look up to snuff compared to the other races and genders and thus have devoted some time to giving them (yes) a makeover.

Are we in an '80s romcom montage or what?

The makeover for the women includes a more detailed character model, improved animations, an additional face, and more hairstyles. The team is also tweaking hair models so that locks of hair will now be seen falling from inside of whatever helm that character is wearing.

To promote the Xadaganian makeover, gPotato released a video diary starring actress Nataliya Zemtsova. Zemtsova was used for the motion capture and voiceovers of the new models and is apparently amazed that you can assign a character a name. Check it out after the jump!

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It's that time of the week again, people! Time for those unlucky few who missed our livestreams as they went live to click beyond the cut and enjoy my favorites of the week. It's hard picking them out, so I reach out to the team and ask which ones deserve to be highlighted. Honestly, all of the livestreams deserve the spotlight, but it should be no surprise to find out that individual streamers find their own streams to be the best of the best. I tend to agree, and every week I am surprised at just how no-nonsense and informative our streams are. Be sure to bookmark our livestream schedule calender so that each week you can tune in to your favorite. Feel free to suggest titles for streaming and to chat it up with our streamers live as they play!

This week we have MJ returning with her favorite games like EverQuest II, Aion, The Secret World, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and Guild Wars 2. Richie joins in with his current favorite, Guild Wars 2, and I round things off with an hour spent with the Ultima Online developer team, a goblinball session with community leaders in Allods Online, and a tutorial on building a house in Wurm Online! Trust me, if there is one goblin-kicking, dev-interviewing, house-building livestream series that you should watch, it's this one!

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Why? Why do we die in MMOs and receive an infinite number of resurrections? Are we in a type of hell defined by endless combat and suffering, doomed to never escape the cycle? Is this a cruel experiment being performed by supreme alien beings from afar? Does that make us the living undead, immortal Highlanders, or something even more significant?

If you're looking at me with that look you have in your eye right now, I'd like to remind you that asking these questions is more in line with the core of RPGs than just mashing the 1-2-3 buttons. The rules that make up and dictate our virtual lives should have both meaning and sense, yet so many of these games expect us to just blithely accept that we can come back from the dead over and over without nary an explanation.

Well, I like explanations. Even if it's just polite nonsense, a thought-out reason as to why our characters are death-proof tells me that the devs treat their game with a higher degree of integrity than others. So here are 10 MMOs in which the endless cycle of death and resurrection gets at least a backhanded explanation instead of "shut up, just accept it."

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Big studios are getting hacked? MMOs are launching and shutting down all over the place? Lawsuits bring tempers to the settlement tables? Sounds like a job for... someone else! And that someone is MJ, Massively's on-the-scenes combat reporter.

MJ joins Justin to co-host this week as Bree has mysteriously gone missing. Don't worry, however; a nearby gnome with an exclamation point above his head is willing to send you on a quest to rescue her from the Dirty Diaper Dragon.

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air!

Get the podcast:
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Read below the cut for the full show notes.

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Before I get into the details of my week revisiting Allods Online, the "controversial" MMO published by gPotato, I'd like to say that I am fully aware of its less-than-stellar launch. I'd go so far to say that I have heard a lifetime's worth of theories and discussions over the overpriced cash shop and odd death mechanic. I saw the players who worshipped the game during the beta and later screamed about the fact that someone had to pay for the game. I have my own theories, mainly one that says many Western MMO players' first experience with a free-to-play MMO was Allods Online. These players were not used to cash shops and scoffed at for paying something that was previously free in beta.

The cash-shop prices were too high. We know this. The developers and publishers both talked about it and continue to do so when asked. The death mechanic was over the top, and players could literally spend thousands of dollars on the game. This is all known; I have heard about it from the publishers' mouths myself. So here we are. The game has been tweaked and patched. The prices were adjusted; the silliest of the death mechanics have been removed. Players can still spend thousands on the game, but those same players can spend thousands in any number of MMOs.

Now that I have gotten that out of the way, allow me to tell you what I thought about the gameplay during my revisitation.

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Players waiting to build and claim their own allods can finally dig in and start construction now that Allods Online's expansion New Horizons has finally arrived. Besides the ability to own your own personal island, the expansion introduces a rebalanced Psionicist class, the ability to change factions, and a new draconic aspect. Check out these features and more in the new trailer after the break.

In addition, as part of the celebration of opening the new North American server Avilon, players who log into the game for at least one hour from August 8th through the 21st are entered into a raffle each day for a chance to win real prizes. Check out the official announcement for full details about the lottery and prizes.

For more details about the expansion, read Massively's exclusive interview. And be sure to stay tuned for a Rise and Shiny revisit to the game later in the week.

[Source: gPotato press release]

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Massively reader The Platypus knows the secret behind taking a good One Shots entry: a good death! He sent in this amazing shot from The Secret World with a quick note:

Hey Massively -- long-time reader The Platypus here! Two friends and I decided to three-man the Polaris dungeon in The Secret World last night, and while it went more smoothly than I imagined it would, we still had a little trouble with the Ur-Draug (TSW's Cthulhu analogue). As I was dying the first time and the creeping inevitability of my fate overcame me, I did the only logical thing I could do with the last few seconds of life: I took a screenshot! Enjoy!

Tentacles past the break. Hit it!

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Allods Online: New Horizons is, well, on the near horizon, and gPotato is shining a spotlight on the expansion's star pupils. In a new dev diary, the mercenary system is dangled right like a plump morsel in front of a starving crowd.

Mercenaries work in a similar fashion to those in other MMOs. Players who are struggling to put together a full group for challenging content can hire one of these hard-working soldiers of war. Allods will give players their first mercenary contract for free, but subsequent ones cost in-game currency. Mercs last for two hours and are under control of the player who hired them.

The mercenary roster includes Rowdy Brow, a tank; Matron Lighthand, a healer; Stormer the Fierce, a melee warrior; Casper Flinty, a ranged damage dealer; Lisa de Vevre, a buffer/debuffer; and Michael Grammar, a ranged spellcaster.

New Horizons is on course to launch early this month. In the meanwhile, may we interest you in an exclusive interview with one of the devs?

This week, your intrepid podcasters are traveling down into the dark uncanny valley where their sanity will be shredded, filleted, minced, and served with a nice kumquat garnish. As they forge ahead through pandas, chibis, sasquatches, skarts, and Norwegians, only one question remains -- if they survive, will what's left be worth living?

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air!

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
Listen here on the page:



Read below the cut for the full show notes.

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