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SWTOR extends free game time promotion beyond level 50 characters

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Patches, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Promotions

If the news of yesterday's Star Wars: The Old Republic promotion to give level 50 players a month of free game time rubbed some members -- the non-50s, specifically -- the wrong way, then BioWare's on the scene to make amends. The studio announced that it's expanding its Legacy promotion to include a wider range of players.

In addition to applying to any player who's reached level 50, the 30 days of free game time will now be applied to the account of anyone who has reached Legacy Level 6 in the game. This condition requires that a player has unlocked his or her Legacy at the end of Chapter 1 and then achieved six levels across any number of toons (Legacy XP is shared across an account).

Another change to this promotion is that players have over a week to hit either one of these goals. Players now have until 1:00 p.m. EDT on April 22nd to achieve either level 50 on a character or Legacy Level 6 on an account to receive the free month of play.

Following news of yesterday's Legacy promotion, the SWTOR forums exploded with discussion over the topic, with the main discussion thread reaching over 250 pages on the subject.

SWTOR extends free game time promotion beyond level 50 characters originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PAX East 2012: SWTOR 1.2 coming next week

Jef Reahard — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

We've been telling you about Star Wars: The Old Republic's 1.2 Legends patch for a while now. Thankfully we've finally got a release date to share as well. Actually, let's call it a release window, and let's call it next week, thanks to statements made by BioWare's James Ohlen at PAX East earlier today.

"We have our update 1.2 coming in the next week, and then after that, it's going to continue to roll out month after month. It's exciting," he told Boston-area convention-goers.

Ohlen's optimism springs from what's to come in SWTOR over the next few months. "The scope of our game updates in 2012 is going to be unimaginable. You're going to see so many changes and additions to the Star Wars Universe; it's going to be impressive," he said.

Massively's on the ground in Boston during the weekend of April 6-8, bringing you all the best news from PAX East 2012. Whether you're dying to know more about TERA or PlanetSide 2 or any MMO in between, we aim to have it covered!

PAX East 2012: SWTOR 1.2 coming next week originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BioWare talks SWTOR's 1.2 crew skill changes

Jef Reahard — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Crafting

BioWare has laid its cards on the table with regard to the crafting changes coming in Star Wars: The Old Republic's 1.2 update. The tweaks are extensive, and designer Georg Zoeller has posted a lengthy summary on the game's official website.

Among the highlights are a large number of artifice schematics included with the patch. BioWare is keen on allowing players to choose their weapon color crystals without regard to the stats, and artificers will also be "the first profession to gain some dedicated PvP crafting."

Other highlights include various changes to gathering and reverse engineering mechanics as well as the ability for cybertech practitioners to sell any of their created vehicles on the auction house (the devs are removing the current bind restrictions). Get the full scoop at the official SWTOR website.

BioWare talks SWTOR's 1.2 crew skill changes originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SWTOR's Guild Summit kicks off -- and lurkers are welcome [Updated]

Justin Olivetti — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, real-world, Guilds, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Livestream

BioWare has assembled guilds from all across the world this week for a Star Wars: The Old Republic Guild Summit, and proceedings have already begun. Over 160 guilds have assembled in Austin, Texas, from places as far away from Norway, Brazil, and France.

The good news is that even if you're not reading this post from a spot on the summit floor, you can still tune into the panels and discussions via livestream. Today's events include a patch 1.2 presentation (which is coming "soon"), discussions about operations and flashpoints, and panels covering PvP, the Legacy system, the economy, roleplaying, guild features, and the user interface.

BioWare also announced its Friends of Star Wars program, which will give all current players the ability to give three one-week trials to others to check out the game. Finally, BioWare teased a new world events system.

Check out all of the action on SWTOR's Guild Summit livestream right now!

[Update: TORWars managed to record a shaky-cam version of the GU 1.2 Legacy video. It's now tucked behind the cut!]

Continue reading SWTOR's Guild Summit kicks off -- and lurkers are welcome [Updated]

SWTOR's Guild Summit kicks off -- and lurkers are welcome [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIFT 'Spoils of War' mini-event kicks off today

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 04 May 2011 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, RIFT

To help tide players over until RIFT's 1.2 patch is released, Trion Worlds has set into motion a mini-event from May 4th through the 9th. Titled "Spoils of War," the event serves as an epilogue for last month's River of Souls.

After thwarting Alsbeth and her motley crew, players find that tainted treasure is literally raining from the skies in Telara and earth and fire rifts are appearing everywhere with disturbing frequency. Players will be asked to go on four daily quests -- available in their respective capital cities -- to investigate the "too good to be true" free loot. The quests task players to gather up golden coins in the capitals and special dragon eggshells around the world.

RIFT players who participate can turn these coins and eggshells in for for containers that can hold a variety of goodies. These rewards include rare artifacts, achievements and a new "Gritty Kitty" companion pet.

Currently, RIFT's 1.2 update is tentatively scheduled for May 10th.

RIFT 'Spoils of War' mini-event kicks off today originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 May 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zone locks double in WAR after release of new Zone Domination System

Brooke Pilley — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Warhammer Online, News items

The primary RvR campaign goal in Warhammer Online is to capture and defend zones from your enemy. Up until recently, it was very difficult to capture zones and too easy to defend zones, which led to player frustration. Mythic introduced a new zone locking mechanic called the Zone Domination System (ZDS) in patch 1.2 to help address this issue.

We heard early reports that the ZDS was working as intended, but had no hard numbers to back up the claims. Now we do. Nazgum, an avid MMO gamer and new WAR blogger, has been collecting zone capture data from the official Realm War site for the last 30 days and has come up with some interesting results.

Zone captures have doubled across all servers with the new ZDS. Order and Destruction are roughly even in number of zone captures if you average them out across all servers as well. One concern players have with the new system is that zones can be more easily "ninja'd" during 5am raids. Nazgum's charts show that the majority of zone locks occur between 2 and 6am (in North America). Finally, he compares activity on the two role-play servers to address Ostermark's envy of Phoenix Throne.

Zone locks double in WAR after release of new Zone Domination System originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mark Jacobs on WAR 6-month state of the game

Brooke Pilley — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Patches, Warhammer Online

Mythic VP/GM/CEO, Mark Jacobs just delivered his highly anticipated State of the Game announcement for Warhammer Online one week before the six-month anniversary of its release. Mythic is currently in the midst of Call to Arms, their first live expansion, and recently delivered a whopping patch that fixed over 500 bugs and introduced two new careers (the Slayer and Choppa).

Mark states that the next iteration in this series of patches (1.21) will fix 400+ more bugs, attempt to balance the careers even further, and deliver more new content. The 1.21 patch will launch next month. Details on their 1.3 patch are a bit foggy, but they may deal with items from the following list, which Mark calls the "Eleven Enticing Enhancements" list for WAR:

Client/Server performance in RvR
Bug & Polish
Open RvR in general
Keeps in general
Keep Defense
Battlefield Objectives
Zone Capture
Zone Capture rewards
City Raiding for fun and profit
Career Balancing
Scenarios

Finally, Mark touches upon the progress being made with the new Tomb Kings themed dungeon. Fans of Dark Age of Camelot will not only find it reminiscent of Darkness Falls, they will also find some new and exhilarating experiences. If any of these things pique your interest, you could always give the game a try with WAR's 10-day free trial.

Mark Jacobs on WAR 6-month state of the game originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mythic's Josh Drescher interviewed on patch 1.2, official forums, and beyond

Brooke Pilley — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, Warhammer Online, News items

The always witty and rambunctious Syp of the WAAAGH! Blog recently had a chance to chat with Warhammer Online Producer, Josh Drescher. Josh took time out of his busy schedule to give some insight behind Mythic's patching process, stance on official forum moderation, and how they try to achieve class balance.

Don't be surprised to see another monster patch rivalling that of 1.2 in the future, but expect many smaller patches as well. Their only patching philosophy is not wanting to follow a defined patching schedule because doing so can lead to all kinds quality of issues.

The official WAR forums are heavily moderated to prevent "Internet toughguys" from cluttering up the discussion. Mythic hopes their forums will be a place where they can hear the players' voices easily and clearly and the players can hear what the devs are saying and planning without having to scour the Web.

Josh also paints a picture of the ever-complicated issue of combat and careers balance. To learn more about this and other creamy WAR goodness that came up in the discussion, make sure to head over to the WAAAGH! blog for the full scoop.

Mythic's Josh Drescher interviewed on patch 1.2, official forums, and beyond originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is Warhammer's new zone domination system working as intended?

Brooke Pilley — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Warhammer Online, Opinion

The 1.2 patch went live for Warhammer Online last week and introduced many new things to the game. Among them was a new open RvR mechanic called the Zone Domination system, which supplements the original zone locking mechanic. In simple terms, the new ZD system allows realms to lock a zone by holding all of the keeps and battlefield objectives for at least two hours.

The new mechanic has been live for a full week now and Syncaine of the Hardcore Casual blog reports that it is working as intended. Not only does it speed up the zone locking mechanic, it simplifies things as well. The objective timers allow for realms to more easily coordinate their efforts and make smart choices about where to attack and defend. It also splits up the zergs that dominated the previous system and gives smaller groups more impact in the battle.

A cynical person might say the new ZD system is great but what's the point if city siege is not up to par? Mark Jacobs recently hinted that his new State of the Game announcement will touch upon this very topic. Could this issue be addressed in the 1.3 patch?

Is Warhammer's new zone domination system working as intended? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WAR gets an "official" free trial in NA, Europe, and Oceania

Brooke Pilley — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Warhammer Online, News items

Last week, we announced a free 10-day Warhammer Online trial through FilePlanet. This was a bit misleading because it wasn't technically "free" if you had to be a subscriber of FilePlanet. Two days later we announced Mythic and FilePlanet were extending the free trial offer to a limited number of non-subscribers as well. Today, we're happy to sweep away any lingering confusion by announcing that Mythic is offering a 100% free 10-day WAR trial through their official website!

Potential North American and Oceanic players should head to this official trial starter page, which includes links to a quick start guide, list of system requirements, cinematic trailer, and 41MB game installer. European players can head directly to War-Europe.com and create their trial account. Anyone wishing to upgrade free trial accounts can do so by purchasing a retail copy from their favorite game shop and following these simple steps. Mythic also put together an official free trial FAQ page which should answer any other questions you might have.

Since the enormous 1.2 patch dropped earlier this week, now seems like a great opportunity for anyone sitting on the fence to give WAR a shot for free.

WAR gets an "official" free trial in NA, Europe, and Oceania originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Warhammer Online's 1.2 patch might just bring you back

Brooke Pilley — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, Warhammer Online, News items

Not only is the 1.2 patch huge in terms of size, it is also huge in terms of the impact it will have on Warhammer Online. According to the table of contents, there are 75 sections and subsections in these patch notes. Yikes! Almost every area of the game is affected by 1.2, including combat and careers, crafting, itemization, quests and public quests, items, realm vs. realm, and the user interface.

This patch is chock full of goodness but if you had to pick the top three highlights, they would probably be the Bitter Rivals live event, Zone Domination system, and fixes to combat and careers. Bitter Rivals is a weeklong live event that will provide you with plenty of fun tasks to complete, a new Twisting Tower scenario, and the ability to unlock early access to the new Slayer and Choppa careers. Zone Domination is an alternative way progress the RvR campaign more quickly. It also encourages more rigorous defence of objectives and keeps. Every single career in WAR had some of their abilities fixed or balanced, which makes this the most comprehensive career balance patch since 1.06 in early December.

Make sure you read the full 1.2 notes because they cover so much more than this.

Warhammer Online's 1.2 patch might just bring you back originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hellgate: London solo players get huge patch

Kyle Horner — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Patches, News items, Hellgate: London

Hellgate: London players who've had their copy of the game sitting all alone on a shelf somewhere may want to dust off their discs, because the 1.2 patch for non-subscribers is heading their way. The big reason this matters is mostly because the last patch that single (re: non-subscribing) players got was the 0.6 patch back in December. Well, that's not the only reason, the other is that this patch will bring with it a metric ton of updates, including lots of bug fixes. We're glad to hear it, because the game looks like it could be pretty enjoyable -- if not for the amount of fun-ending issues.

Flagship Studios have the patch in their final Q&A state and are readying a beta version of it for players to try out sometime this week. The patch itself contains all the content and updates that the multiplayer version of the patch had -- so essentially it's the same patch as the one released on March 17th.

We sincerely hope these patches keep on coming, because with every improvement the game receives we're finding it harder to resist a summertime purchase out of sheer curiosity.

Hellgate: London solo players get huge patch originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New PotBS devlog reveals chat bubbles

Kyle Horner — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Pirates of the Burning Sea, Patches, News items

A new official developer log over on the Pirates of the Burning Sea website gives a nice look into the new UI improvements coming down the pipeline with the 1.2 patch. We're happy to see the team take serious steps towards improving their user interface, especially with the addition of (optional) chat bubbles -- a highly requested item among the community. The other visual improvement on the agenda happens to be chat related as well -- the chat window.

Sporting a new, sleeker appearance, the chat window also takes strides to reduce game-generated spam from players' main chat window. Aside from this change, there's floating names, improved tabs, spam reporting options and social window improvements. With all these changes, it's safe to say Flying Lab Software is serious about improve upon their game's weak points.

[via MMORPGDOT]

New PotBS devlog reveals chat bubbles originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New producer, patch for PotBS

Chris Chester — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Historical, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, Previews

Joe Ludwig announced on his personal blog as well as in a new Pirates Devlog, that he is officially taking over the producer duties for Pirates of the Burning Sea, replacing John "Rev" Tynes in the position. No reason is given for the shift, Ludwig only briefly and cryptically saying that Rev is "going to work on other things." Ludwig assures us that he's fit for the role though, jokingly claiming that he's made it his job to meddle in relations with SOE over the last year anyway, even when it wasn't a part of his job title.

Without sparing any time for further pleasantries, Ludwig dives right into business, announcing that their first big content patch is on its way. Among the most significant additions to the game will be a new and improved French Capitol. They are reimagining Pointe-a-Pitre both in terms of looks and mission content, and Ludwig assures us it will be quite the sight. Another interesting tidbit is the addition of a quest called "Bey's Retreat," which will be the first of hopefully many "epic" missions, and should take players in the area of 4-6 hours to run through completely. There's even more juicy bits that we don't have the space to describe here, so make sure to check out the new Devlog.

New producer, patch for PotBS originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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