Dungeons

Star Wars: The Old Republic senior producer Bruce Maclean has posted a summer development roadmap on BioWare's official game forums. The update outlines the 2.2 and 2.3 patches, with the former tentatively scheduled for June 11th and the latter penciled in for August 6th.

The first patch will feature additional guild XP bonuses based on membership numbers (up to a maximum 10% boost), the ability for crafters to make underworld gear, and Nightmare Mode for Terror From Beyond (along with new gear drops).

The second patch will feature "significant graphical upgrades," a new daily area, a new recurring event, and new flashpoints.

Have you ever wanted to battle for galactic glory on the moon? Now you can thanks to Champions Online's Forum Malvanum alert. The new content just went live, and Cryptic says that player heroes will need to "defeat some of the the most dangerous monsters and gladiators from around the universe" in order to become champions of the Lunar Games.

"The Lunar Games include ten rounds of enemies, with some variation in each run," according to Cryptic's announcement post. "Heroes who complete the first five rounds are guaranteed a prize as worthy competitors. More rewards will be granted by Tateklys for defeating the time-limited sixth through tenth rounds, including a climactic final fight with Firewing himself, reigning champion of the Games. Rewards include costume pieces, resources and more."

[Thanks Matixzun!]

Vindictus fans in Europe don't have long to wait for the second episode of Season 2 as Nexon EU has announced that The Secret of Twilight Desert will launch on May 29th. As one of the largest updates ever to the game, this episode will expand the storyline and add new enemies in new areas as well as a dynamic day/night cycle.

Both new terrors and rare beauty come with the nightfall; the Grim Reaper and Guardian Soldiers will threaten adventurers after the sun sets, but the moonlight also reveals the Luminary Plant, a beautiful and powerful plant able to bestow rare gifts upon those capable of harvesting it. And for those seeking treasure buried under the sands, a new underground dungeon (with a traveling entrance) built by the eccentric wild Coffer Chasers offers adventurers a choice of treasure rooms. Choose wisely, though, as all other treasure rooms are locked once one is picked!

Get a glimpse of the coming adventures in the video after the break and the 11 new images in the gallery below.

[Source: Nexon EU press release]

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In the first part of our interview with Carbine Studios executive producer Jeremy Gaffney, we discussed everything we could about the Settler path. In this followup interview, he divulges the beautiful details on essential parts of the game: progression, tradeskills, and the elder game.

WildStar has been setting a fun tone with each new video that's released. As it turns out, that same philosophy extends to nearly every corner of the game.

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Darkfall's long-awaited Unholy Wars makeover launched almost a month ago, and now Aventurine is turning its eyes toward the future of its PvP-focused fantasy sandbox. AV's Tasos Flambouras posted a schedule of planned content updates on the forums earlier this week that stretches all the way into July. Aside from the usual MMO bug fixes and tweaks, there are major additions like the Svartvann, Marthnyr, Hardruk, and Dulguna dungeons, new families of monsters, new ships, and sea fortresses. [Thanks Dengar!]

[Update: Aventurine is reporting that its NA servers are suffering the effects of a DDoS attack. The official blog reads, "In regard to the ping issues on the NA server the past couple of days, this was due to a DDoS attack during NA prime time. We have taken measures in cooperation with our hosting providers to filter this attack, and we're monitoring the situation. We'll keep you updated and we apologize for any inconvenience."]

Do you smell that on the wind, my friends? It smells like June is fast approaching, and more importantly it smells like soon we'll be able to welcome the third phase of testing with open arms. Which is good, since I am currently going through withdrawal. I wake up in cold sweats, try to change my class in other games, start up the Final Fantasy XIV beta client in the hopes that someone "accidentally" turned the servers back on... you get the general idea.

To help alleviate this, I'm going to talk about the two pieces of the game from the first two beta phases that are in need of the most polish. While there are places to improve elsewhere, FATEs and dungeons have issues that might need a bit more hammering to fix. Or they might be fine and we just haven't yet seen enough of the game to know everything. Either way, let's get started with the big addition to the game, the system that had no predecessor in Final Fantasy XIV's first version: the FATE system.

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"This is going to be the best game most of us have built in our lives," Carbine Studios Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney said bluntly.

The game in question, of course, is WildStar, and it represents Gaffney's 10th or so trip through the beta development chute on the way to release. There's an undeniable note of pride and calm confidence in his voice as he talks about the baby that's growing inside Carbine's womb right now, and he was definitely not shy in opening up about all of the decisions and work the team's made as WildStar heads into its second trimester... er, closed beta test.

Before that, however, Gaffney provided a recap of the first closed beta test. He said that it was pretty limited, with only 2,000 players testing out the lowbie Exile zones. The team moved some of the elder game content down in level so that people could test it out, and developers spent some time doing impromptu Q&A sessions with players in the field. As a result, Carbine is ready to shift over to the Dominion side and greatly expand the beta in size and content. Read on for the full scoop on what the next step will entail.

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Player-created content is coming to Allods Online in the form of a dungeon-building feature that will allow players to generate their own private islands called allods.

Launching June 5th of this year, the Path to Victory expansion opens up new private islands that act as customizable labyrinths for other players to explore. In addition to this dungeon-building tool, Gala Networks is also introducing the Weaponsmith tradeskill and several graphical updates with this patch.

Be sure to watch the Path to Victory trailer just after the jump.

[Source: Gala Networks press release]

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DC Universe Online's latest DLC, Origin Crisis, allows players to fill the shoes of some of their favorite -- and not so favorite -- heroes and villains and fight to keep reality as it is. Thanks to yesterday's update, players will actually be traveling through time in order to stop a chain of events that might result in entirely new universes and timelines. You'll be bamming and powing your way through content in the hopes that history remains intact.

We sat down with Jens Andersen, Creative Director of DC Universe Online, to discuss this special DLC, a pack that has been in planning since the game's conception.

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Have you ever wanted to know exactly what goes into designing a new raid for Allods Online? Because there are apparently a lot of moving pieces at play. The latest article from the community team is penned by one of the game designers, and it explains extensively just what is involved in bringing a raid from the concept stage to the actual playable level.

For Allods Online, the first step is the writing team coming up with a concept for the raid that makes sense in the game world and ties into major figures. That leads to the creature and object designers getting a sense of how much can be done for any given raid -- how many new enemies can be created, how many bosses can be made, how big the maps can be. From there it's on to layout and battle mechanics. For a more in-depth overview, take a look at the full entry on the official site.

Massively's Richie "bogotter" Procopio is concerned for you. He's concerned that you might not have tried out Guild Wars 2's Molten Weapon Facility dungeon, the latest installment of the game's "Living Story" arc Flame and Frost: Retribution. He's equally concerned that you might have missed the memo about just how temporary this dungeon really is: It's over on May 12th, meaning you don't have long to check it out before it's gone. Forever.

But it's all good because Richie has put together a brand-new video guide to the dungeon, so you can either watch it and get a jump on playing through the zone yourself this weekend or just live vicariously through him, which would certainly involve less death. Enjoy his walkthrough after the break! (Dead goat sold separately.)

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Making a new discovery on Nexus is always sort of a double-edged sword. The good news is that the Exile Academy of Science has discovered all sorts of fascinating details about the Thundercall Pell race living in the south of Galeras. The bad news is that some of this has come about as a result of discovering strange energy readings emanating from the caverns known as Stormtalon's Lair and the loss of a science team investigating the region, meaning that WildStar players will have to go in and deal with whatever ate the team that went in the first time.

The latest WildStar Wednesday sheds some light on this early dungeon, explaining the motivations behind the inhabitants of the Lair and some of the mysteries still surrounding them. Players will be tasked with fighting their way into the depths, stopping the Thundercall High Priest from awakening the eponymous Stormtalon. Which means you'll probably arrive just in time to fight Stormtalon before it gets free, because really, how else could this end?

Neverwinter's launch into open beta began last week, and through the grace of my press account, my Great Weapon Fighter was lucky enough to begin her digital life alongside players who forked over $199.99 for the Hero of the North Founder's Pack. I lack any of the Founders Pack bonuses, so off my plucky human character went, surrounded on her first day almost exclusively by panther-having Drow.

Justin's been serving up a delicious helping of launch diary goodness, but he's relaxing on a cruise ship this week, so you're stuck with me! Join me as we sally forth into my launch-but-not-really-launch-it's-open-beta-okay-guys-but-we-aren't-deleting-characters-anymore-no-really-it's-still-open-beta-look-it-says-so-in-this-blog-post impressions! The first section is about thighs.

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