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Not So Massively Extra: Our impressions of Rise of Immortals

Brendan Drain — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, New titles, PvP, PvE, Opinion, Free-to-play, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on, Not So Massively

When upcoming MOBA Rise of Immortals first appeared on the scene, it took us a little by surprise. The crop of recent DotA clones has made the market crowded, and giants like League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth have significantly raised the bar in both graphics and gameplay over their predecessors. RoI looked initially like a lower-budget MOBA from a smaller and less experienced development team trying to compete above their weight category, but developer podcasts showed Petroglyph's plans to differentiate the game from its peers.

Rather than trying to topple the giants of the genre by competing on the same terms, Petroglyph has opted to evolve the DotA model and test less explored areas of the emerging MOBA market. The game adds a greater than expected level of persistence through player levels, a talent system and minor strategic items that remain between games. To help lower the genre's typically high barrier to entry, RoI also features a three-player co-operative PvE mode in which players can test out immortals and gain persistent levels before engaging in competitive play. It's a necessary gamble if Petroglyph hopes to take on the giants of the industry, and one that might very well pay off.

In this collaborative hands-on impressions piece, Patrick Mackey, Matthew Daniel and I give our verdict on the current state of the RoI open beta.

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Not So Massively Extra: Our impressions of Rise of Immortals originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Champions Online gearing up for Revelation playtest

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, Events, in-game, Patches, Champions Online

There was quite a stir when Champions Online first announced their new region of Vibora Bay, with a lot of negative feelings getting voiced. That was mollified when it transformed into its current form as Champions Online: Revelation, a mini-expansion free to all players of the game promising a new area, new enemies, and new plots to uncover. The wait is nearly over, and that means all the joy of testing out the new features before they go live, as the game has just announced a special playtest event with the development team on Thursday, March 11th.

Running from 4-7 PM PST (that's 1-4 PM EST for those on the opposite coast), the event will (understandably) be taking place on the public test server. It's a chance both to hang out with the dev team and get an idea of what the new area will play like, with the added bonus of knowing that the people who know the area inside and out will be right there for any questions. Keep your eyes open for the event, as Champions Online will no doubt have quite a bit to reveal during the test.

Champions Online gearing up for Revelation playtest originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Warhammer Online announces 1.3.3 patch tests

Eliot Lefebvre — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, Patches, Previews, Warhammer Online

It's been a dance of extremes on Warhammer Online of late, mixing up good news and rather unsettling news -- but did you come to the game to bite your nails and be nervous? Or did you start playing to lay waste? Assuming the latter, there's some good news to be had in the near future, as two mass playtests are scheduled to occur within the next week on the public test server, Warpstone. Both are testing features slated for 1.3.3, which implies that this patch is not so far off on the horizon.

Both tests will start at 8 PM EST (that's 5 PM for those of you on the other coast). December 1st will see the test of the War Report, which was explained in the November newsletter to be a new service helping players see what was taking place nearby and jump immediately to the conflict. Two days later, December 3rd will be the kick-off of a mass battle stability test, also featuring the new graphical improvements slated for 1.3.3. The announcement also mentions the possibility of winning an Enslaved Manticore or an Imperial Griffon Mount, although details are not given. Whatever the future holds for Warhammer Online, it's nice to get a chance to test out the new features before they go live, so clear away some room on your schedule next week.

Warhammer Online announces 1.3.3 patch tests originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Champions Online has a secret

Rubi Bayer — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, Events, in-game, Champions Online

And they're not going to tell you! However, you can probably make a few guesses as to the secret if you haven't already, when you participate in their secret playtest tomorrow. Champions Online Community Team member David "Daeke" Bass posted this interesting piece of news today: "We've got a big feature coming out next week, but we want your help to test it before then. We can't give too many details now..."

When this super secret new feature hits the PTS tomorrow, it will not be as a timed event, so you can log in and take a look at your leisure. Don't have any speculation as to what it is yet? A few simple instructions on what to bring to the party might help. Daeke requests that you bring a 5-man team of level 40 players and interestingly, a Nemesis.

If you want to participate you can either transfer your own characters over from the live server, or level up using the contact outside the Millennium City Powerhouse.

Champions Online promises more information tomorrow -- we can't wait!

Champions Online has a secret originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Online Sovereignty playtest to be held on Friday, Oct 30

James Egan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Events, in-game, Game mechanics

CCP Games is holding a play test of the new Sovereignty system in EVE Online on Friday, October 30th at 17:00 GMT/UTC on the Singularity test server. The devs are looking for players to jump in and help them fine tune Sovereignty for the Dominion expansion release, which is very much focused on this particular game mechanic. Interested parties are encouraged to show up early, as the devs want to give players a short demo of the new Sovereignty system beforehand. Also, they'll need to divide players into two teams, Red vs. Blue. EVE Quality Assurance dev CCP Tanis writes, "We will be testing several aspects of the new Sovereignty system, think of this kind of like a 'king of the hill' game in EVE."

EVE players interested in helping out (and getting a feel for how the new system will work) should read through the info the devs have listed in the playtest announcement. The developers have stated the testing event will take two or three hours to complete. (As an aside, they're putting the Sovereignty game mechanics through its paces on Mischief Night... what could go wrong?)

EVE Online Sovereignty playtest to be held on Friday, Oct 30 originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Test out the new Shards of Destiny raid in EQ2

Seraphina Brennan — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Previews, Endgame

Shards of Destiny is EverQuest II's newest update, and with it will be coming a wash of new changes to the game. One of these new additions, however, will be a brand new raid that will feature the new scaling difficulty feature, also being introduced with Shards of Destiny.

The new zone, Miragul's Planar Shard, is an x4 epic level raid, which means that it will require four groups of six people to complete. The raid is linked to Norrath through Everfrost through the same door that starts the other Miragul instance. The raid will offer a challenge to all players who enter its halls, but skilled groups can choose paths that will increase the difficulty of the instance even further.

Continue reading Test out the new Shards of Destiny raid in EQ2

Test out the new Shards of Destiny raid in EQ2 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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D&DO Module 7: The Monk

Mike Schramm — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:01:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Classes, Culture, Patches, PvE

When we first sign on to the special Demo server Turbine had set up to show us Module 7, we found that they'd created a level 16 Monk for us to play with. The Monk class has been in the pen-and-paper game for a long time, but DDO is introducing them with Module 7 as the tenth player class in the game.

As we signed in and got set up, the folks from Turbine introduced themselves: Kate Paiz (who we've spoken with before) is the game's senior producer, and Stephen Muray, lead systems designer, and Jesse Smith, a content designer on the game, also joined us as well (Turbine's Director of Communications, Adam Mersky, also spoke up at the end of the session). As the screen loaded up, Paiz said that with the design of the Monk, they wanted to create a class that played significantly differently from anything they tried before. All of D&DO's combat is real-time (as in, you must press a button to attack, rather than just choosing a target), and the Monk's new abilities add a twist to this system. Basically, the Monk has four different stances (Ocean, Mountain, Wind and Sun -- the developers said they drew a lot of the Monk's lore from Dungeons and Dragons' Oriental Adventures supplement book), and each tweaks his or her abilities and attacks -- during most of the playtest, we used the Sun stance to try and do more damage, though the designers said that depending on how the Monk is specced, he would also be able to tank and or do some self heals and group buffs as the class trained up.

All of the Monk's abilities are governed by Ki energy, which can be tseen in a meter below the health bar, and is simply earned by attacking. Muray mentioned that this was to counterweight the pen-and-paper Monk's "times-per-day" abilities -- in pen-and-paper D&D, many Monk abilities can only be performed once or twice a day, and while Ki energy still lets players perform Monk tricks much more often, they are still kept limited enough that choosing what abilities you use your Ki on is very important.

"Did you just Abundant Leap across that gap? Nice!"

But one of those abilities stands above the rest: Abundant Leap (a variant, we were told of Dimension Door in the pen-and-paper game). Starting around level 10 or 11, the Monk can perform a move (with a low cooldown costing a very low amoung of Ki) that pushes them forward in space with a quick jump -- as you hit the ability, the screen blurs, the Monk leans forward, and suddenly you're about 15 yards ahead of where you last stood. Abundant Leap was, during our session, the most fun thing to do as a Monk -- even in noncombat situations (and perhaps especially in noncombat situations), we were leaping and jumping as much as we could. Once, to cross a gap, we jumped, in midair hit the leap ability, and landed gracefully on the other side. It's a minor ability in the overall scheme of things, but Abundant Leap, almost more than any of the other moves we used, makes you feel like a Monk.

Overall, the class seems fairly balanced, and Paiz said that they had put a lot of time trying to keep the class not only faithful to the pen-and-paper version, but also a dynamic part of the MMO environment. It should definitely be a fun reroll for everyone playing DDO, and for the players who level it all the way up, the later abilities should offer a lot of interesting twists on what the team has created in the game.

After loading the game and playing with the new class for a bit, our game began in sight of a peaceful shrine to one of D&D's greatest heroes.

Click here to continue the preview...

D&DO Module 7: The Monk originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 27 May 2008 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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