Crafting

Any RPG player worth his or her salt knows that there are two primary maxims to making it big: explore everywhere and take everything not nailed down. Fortunately, ZeniMax subscribes to this philosophy as well, which is why the team has placed an emphasis on exploration and loot-gobbling in The Elder Scrolls Online.

In a new video, Creative Director Paul Sage shows how players can loot all manner of goods in the world and then use those items for crafting. He also points out how the world will be populated with readable books, fishable areas, hidden chests, and ability-boosting stones. So if you were wondering if it's OK to rob a church in TESO, the following video should assure you that it's more than fine -- it's encouraged.

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A couple weeks ago we introduced you to an aspiring sandbox game with a focus on exploring and building that hit Kickstarter. Titled The Untitled Game (a.k.a. TUG), the open-world venue plans on using technology and social sciences to directly involve players in the design. And after listening to community feedback, developer Nerd Kingdom has introduced three new reward tiers for backers as well as a video that spotlights design features such as crafting, companions, and more.

The new tiers offer digital beta or alpha access as well as in-game extras like tattoos on your character and a baby sabre tiger companion. Prices range from $30 to $65. Folks can also get gift packs to share that give bonus copies of the game in addition to the personal copy. Check out all the details on the latest update post. And be sure to watch the design video after the break.

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If you want to craft items in The Repopulation, you're not going to go down to the science fiction equivalent of Ikea and buy the Martin Plasma Rifle. You're going to get out into the wild and get the resources you need. There are two systems for gathering items in The Repopulation, and the newest development blog for the game discusses one of the ways to grab those resources: Extraction, also known as "digging useful components out of corpses."

Since the game doesn't feature levels, there's a more organic system to gathering these resources. Players first decide how difficult the extraction should be, with higher difficulties resulting in higher-grade resources. More difficult extractions take longer, however, and as a result, players have a higher chance to fail unless they've practiced harvesting a particular species. For more details on the specifics, check out the full development blog on the official site.

The Repopulation's end-of-the-month progress report is here, and judging by the sheer length of the thing, April was one for the books. The new update takes a high-level view of development and it states that since the majority of The Repopulation's features are complete, the dev team is now focusing on content creation and an enjoyable new player experience.

Highlights from April's patch cycle include the new harvester system, player turrets, AI tweaks, stampedes, and gore options. Of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg, so be sure and read the full post for all the details.

[Thanks J.C.!]

Last night, Camelot Unchained surpassed its $2 million Kickstarter goal, but if you've been following the Kickstarter for the last month, you know that reaching $2 million means a lot more than reaching $2 million. As originally promised when the Kickstarter launched, the game will now receive an additional $3 million in funding, $2 million of which comes from City State co-founder and MMO industry veteran Mark Jacobs. The remainder comes courtesy of unnamed investors.

"The last 30 days have been an incredible journey," Jacobs said via press release. "We believed there's an audience for a highly focused game like ours, which has now been proven. What we didn't expect was how our community would come together so quickly and avidly. Not only is our average pledge off the chart, our backers have been just as intensely supportive in other ways, from providing immense amounts of helpful feedback to translating information into four languages (German, French, Japanese and Korean), and more."

Camelot Unchained will use a proprietary engine optimized for large-scale battles and already battle-tested to the tune of 200-plus frames per second while displaying 1,000 simultaneous characters rendered with 12,000 polygons. The three-faction PvP-focused fantasy MMO also boasts a building-block crafting system that will allow players to construct individual cells and larger segments before assembling them "in nearly limitless ways."

[Source: City State press release]

[Update: We've clarified that the additional funding was promised as a Kickstarter goal from the start.]

If you're the sort of sandbox aficionado who's more into crafting and exploration than griefing, then this post is for you. Brand-new to Kickstarter today is an MMO called, well, The Untitled Game, or TUG for short. Inspired by the likes of Minecraft, Zelda, and EVE Online, TUG promises an immersion-driven, "massive procedurally generated world to explore" along with such features as combat, crafting, building, an organic UI, modding tools, hidden civilizations, animal taming, "logic engineering," day/season cycles, realistic weights, support for roleplayers, and no DRM. Like rival Shroud of the Avatar, TUG will be playable solo, on a private server, and on the official MMO server.

Developer Nerd Kingdom styles itself as "a collective of scientists, researchers, technologists, economists, content creators, artists, modders, and gamers from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds" with a "deep passion for the nerdery of academic sciences, art, and technology," but in spite of its academic background, the studio promises a survival sandbox/multiplayer RPG hybrid without all the associated spreadsheets and number-crunching.

The game is targeting 2015 for launch with an alpha this coming July; the digital download edition of the game can be secured for as little as 10 bucks on Kickstarter now. See whether the videos behind the break don't convince you.

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Let's make a quick list of items Update 2.1 for Star Wars: The Old Republic will bring us: a new species, an appearance designer kiosk, name changes, and armor dyes. It's understandable why this update is named Customization. Details about each about each of these systems are trickling out slowly, and the latest crop of information comes from MMO fansite Dulfy.net.

Dulfy spoke with BioWare about the armor dye system and scrounged up some very specific details about how it works. After the release of 2.1, players will be able to find a total of 48 different dye modules: 25 from the Cartel Market, 3 from the security key and collector's edition vendors, and 20 made through Artificing. There are three types of dyes modules: one with a primary color, one with a secondary color, and one with both a primary and secondary color. Unfortunately, not all armor with be able to be dyed. BioWare explained that the Knights of the Old Republic-inspired outfits will not have dye slots, so that those costumes can remain true to Star Wars lore. Sorry, no bright pink Bastila Shan outfit for you, sir.

Camelot Unchained's Kickstarter odyssey is almost complete, and as of press time there's a little over a day remaining. City State's fantasy RvR sandbox stands at just over $1.82 million out of its $2 million goal, so Mark Jacobs has penned a dev diary designed to push the game's funding over the top.

He outlines the many challenges inherent in managing both a Kickstarter campaign and an ambitious MMORPG project, and he hits the highlights of the former which include three faction RvR, Minecraft-style building options, and a custom engine that has easily handled hundreds of simultaneous players at well over 200 frames per second. Finally, Jacobs thanks CU's current backers, whom he says have given unprecedented support to the tune of a $160 average pledge.

Jacobs' full diary is readable after the cut.

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Moving right along after tripling its Kickstarter funding goal back in November, the developers behind Greed Monger have been busy slowly bringing the crafting-centric game to life. A working day/night cycle is already implemented, and over the weekend a chunk of the tropical climate area was imported to the test server, allowing devs to finally meet up in the same space together. The character creation UI and finished models (with armor sets) will be heading in this week. The team is also currently working on avatar animation and making sure controls work.

Want to get a peek at how Greed Monger is coming along? Then check out the brief fly-through video of the tropics climate region after the break. Then head on over to the official site to see the snazzy new in-game screenshots.

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When the World of Darkness MMO was first announced in November 2006, it was just an idea and we knew that it wouldn't be released any time soon. The chance to play a sandbox game set in the Vampire: The Masquerade universe nevertheless made fans of the series go nuts, but now over six years later we haven't seen much progress on the game. At EVE Fanfest 2013 today, CCP laid the current state of development bare for all to see and showed some plans for the coming year. There are now 70 people on the WoD team, and they've spent the past week working on everything from art tools and server infrastructure to vampire powers and social options.

"You're a powerful, immortal lord of the night. You don't want to stitch a shirt."

Development plans for 2013 include working on out-of-game web-based social tools, clothing systems, and PvE game environments. There are also plans to work on item creation, but direct crafting is probably not on the cards. As the presenter put it, "You're a powerful, immortal lord of the night. You don't want to stitch a shirt." Though the game is still in the pre-production stage, CCP was keen to show off the tools it's made to speed up the development process. "Some of these videos are a bit dry and technical," joked the presenter, but it came across as more real and honest than another trailer or musings on theoretical gameplay.

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Talking about building the world in Camelot Unchained is not something that can be done in just one sitting, so Mark Jacobs broke it into two. In the first update, Jacobs described the building blocks, mining, and the cooperative nature of construction. The conclusion of this two-part series focused on explaining blueprints and how RvR is intertwined in the world-building system.

Blueprints, which can be traded, are a way to speed up the building process -- or rebuilding, if enemies have destroyed your structure in RvR. Players with the appropriate skills can create blueprints of an already finished structure or through the architect's interface as a plan for a future structure. Through RvR, players can claim buildings built by others, either by deconstructing the entire thing or just capturing it; those structures can then be repaired or rebuilt by the new owners.

Want even more information on building a fortress in Camelot Unchained? Then check out Massively's interview with Mark Jacobs.

The Camelot Unchained team has just released a new video dev blog for Kickstarter backers outlining some fairly ambitious plans for mining and construction in the upcoming PvE-free sandbox. The system will involve combinations of custom and prefab cells in which players so inclined can build up the empires and trading posts and fortifications of their dreams. And in a nod to games like Minecraft, the construction mechanics are built on a foundation of supplies procured through co-op mining gameplay.

Ahead of the reveal, we asked City State Entertainment's Mark Jacobs a few questions about the systems he's proposing, from the influence of Mojang's popular sandbox to whether mining will become my new part-time job. Read on for the complete interview!

[Update: As of Monday, CSE has also released the document form of the housing plans.]

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So yesterday I kinda rambled on at length about why I'm loving Darkfall Unholy Wars. I'm not really apologizing; after all, this is my launch week diary! Today, though, I figured I might tone it down a bit and just hit the highlights of my day three play experience. After that, I'll recap and give you some final thoughts on Darkfall as it stands in April 2013.

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Although it's been a while since the post-apocalyptic sandbox Xsyon has seen a patch, today's update looks to make up for that. With a focus on developing the in-game economy, this update introduces a number of new features, including new resources and materials, new Artisan and Master armor sets, a tribal upkeep system that offers bonuses, special trade totems, alliance and family group formation, and more.

Trade will be bolstered through the new totems; the new trade and quest versions allow tribes to place additional totems that will serve as a marketplace and quest hub. Even better, besides the ones placed in the tribe's own land, additional quest and trade totems can be placed on allied land. For more details on this and the other new systems, check out the full patch notes.

[Source: Notorious Games press release]

How would you feel about a Neverwinter professions blog? No, you're not expected to write one, silly, but you can certainly read one if you're interested in the game's crafting mechanics.

In a nutshell, crafting involves hiring numerous NPC assets to complete crafting-related tasks. These NPCs include Leadership Mercs, Platesmithing Miners, Mailsmithing Prospectors, Leatherworking Skinners, and Tailoring Weavers. Over time, completing various tasks will award profession XP as well as resources and rewards.

Your NPC assets will work on your tasks while you're out adventuring, and you can also "tinker with your professions on the Neverwinter Gateway website when you're outside of the game client," according to the diary. Learn more at the game's official site.