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AIKA Global gearing up for nation merge, in-game events

Jef Reahard — Wed, 11 May 2011 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Aika

AIKA's plans for global domination are ramping up in the month of May. The free-to-play fantasy title now features four major in-game events, and a new press release hints at "exciting new game and website updates" to be revealed.

First up is the month-long Nation Wars II event in which AIKA's nation-states transform into all out war zones. Four players from each nation will represent their homelands on the Lord Marshall Alliance, and national armies will be able to march on enemy territory for fun and profit.

Next up is the Legionaires of May event in which participants compete to level new characters from 10 to 50 as swiftly as possible. The first five legions to complete the requirements by May 31st will snag a prize pack. The final two events, A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed and Auction House, span the entire month. Specifics for each will be given in-game during the lead-up to the event. Finally, AIKA Global is introducing an offline mailing system as well as a nation merge that will have a major impact on the game's political landscape. Head to the official AIKA website and read all about the coming changes.

AIKA Global gearing up for nation merge, in-game events originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 11 May 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Naoki Yoshida releases another producer's letter for Final Fantasy XIV

Eliot Lefebvre — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV

Naoki Yoshida has been making big changes to the structure of Final Fantasy XIV ever since he took over as the game's producer, but the recent patch 1.15a was only the beginning. In the latest producer's letter, Yoshida not only discusses the recent changes and the reaction to same but also lays out further plans for game updates, as well as opens up the second player poll for the game. This time, the poll is focused around changes to the battle system, including the addition of an auto-attack and the future of the dual rank/level system.

The letter itself contains several interesting promises, including plans to introduce a wider variety of world quests, instanced dungeons, and a reduced overall party cap of eight players instead of the current 15. While several of the changes listed are further in the future, Yoshida stresses that the team is hard at work on every aspect of the game, with the battle systems next up for the biggest review. Final Fantasy XIV players should read the full letter and take part in the poll, which closes at the end of next week.

Naoki Yoshida releases another producer's letter for Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log: Stare too long into the Abyssea

Eliot Lefebvre — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Expansions, Game mechanics, Patches, Opinion, Consoles, The Mog Log

The first of two December version updates has hit the community, and as a result I'm torn. On the one hand, this means that Final Fantasy XI has seen another major upheaval in the form of more levels and new content, which is really significant... if you're up at those levels. I am not, and consequently a lot of what I can say about those high levels is pretty darn speculative. Most of the concrete information I have heard about the update seems to concern problems with console installations rather than substantive information.

But I do feel fairly confident in talking about Abyssea. The second trilogy of mini-expansions has come to an end, with a very different focus than the previous unconnected addons. I'd say that it's been both a good and a bad thing for the game as a whole, both in the way that leveling has become tied to the new areas and in what it might mean for the game in the future. So with the whole setup out of the way, let's talk about what's been done and what might be coming as a result.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Stare too long into the Abyssea

The Mog Log: Stare too long into the Abyssea originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 18 Dec 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More looks inside of Final Fantasy XIV

Eliot Lefebvre — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Game mechanics, Previews, Final Fantasy XIV

It's a good time to be a Final Fantasy XIV fan, with testing now in full swing and information coming out an accelerated pace. While we'd been in the dark for some time, we're now moving into almost having an information glut. FFXIVCore has been hard at work translating everything released by Famitsu, and there's a lot to digest from there, ranging from confirmation of things we've already suspected to new information altogether.

Aside from several screenshots of the game in action, we find out that characters will indeed have both first and last names on creation, in the style of Guild Wars and Dungeons and Dragons Online. The battle system will apparently use staggered sets of abilities rather than steady auto-attacks, something more akin to City of Heroes than Final Fantasy XI. Learned abilities can be used regardless of a character's class, allowing extensive mix-and-match play with each character.

In addition to all of that, we also learn just how deep the character building is: levels allow you to improve your stats and skill levels allow access to new abilities, but almost everything is built on player choice. There's a lot for Final Fantasy XIV fans to digest, but the game is shaping up to be very different than its predecessor while retaining the same rich flavor.

More looks inside of Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Altis Gates brings in the Pet Corps

Krystalle Voecks — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Video, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, Altis Gates

Altis Gates, the upcoming free-to-play title being published by IGG, is setting out to offer up some interesting mechanics for the f2p fans in the house. The game has 2 main classes with 12 subclasses, and offers players the chance to shape-shift into various different forms. To add to that, IGG is bringing in a new patch that will introduce a new type of game play called the Pet Corps to the game.

Under the normal Altis Gates system, each player fights with one pet at his or her side. With the introduction of the Pet Corps pet training & battling system, the player will actually send a specially-picked formation of 5 pets into the battle to fight. Each formation calls on different elements to increase stats, while causing penalties -- thereby introducing quite a bit of strategy to each match. While players will not receive experience for these matches, the word is that pets will receive "incredible amounts" -- even if they lose. It makes this a great way for players to train up a number of pets in a shorter period of time, giving them a greater array of powerful pets to pick for regular battles.

If you're curious about Altis Gates, we've embedded a video behind the break to show off some of the basic game play for you. IGG also let us know that the open beta for Altis Gates is coming on March 7th, so keep an eye on the official site if this looks like a game you'd enjoy!

Continue reading Altis Gates brings in the Pet Corps

Altis Gates brings in the Pet Corps originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Developer diary covers Siege of Mirkwood's new skirmish instances

Seraphina Brennan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Game mechanics, News items, PvE

The newest expansion to Lord of the Rings Online, the Siege of Mirkwood, will be introducing a new type of storyline instance for players to play in -- skirmishes. Skirmishes bring a new style of gameplay to LotRO, giving players the ability to participate in small military conflicts between the Free Peoples and the forces of Sauron while also being able to participate in small bits of content and still be rewarded.

The first two parts, the overview and the instanced nature of skirmishes, go over what the new Skirmish system provides players, and how skirmishes put a twist on the old concept of instancing. Did you ever want to defend the Prancing Pony in Bree? How about fight along side Elrond's sons? Skirmishes will be opening up those options to players while still offering repeatable adventures for any group size.

But we shouldn't talk our faces off here! Go on over and read Brian "Zombie Columbus" Aloisio's developer diary on the whole matter. He can describe it better than we can!

Developer diary covers Siege of Mirkwood's new skirmish instances originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E3 2009: Global Agenda impressions, continued

Mike Schramm — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Interviews, New titles, PvP, PvE, Hands-on, MMOFPS, Global Agenda

My "Engineer" equipped, we ran over to the PvE mission master, grabbed a mission, and then got a cinematic of a dropship taking off and landing in the zone. After a little experimentation with the force fields and turrets (Robotics characters put down a marker which then needs to be repaired up to full strength with a special weapon), we dropped into the building, and were instantly confronted with some Star Wars-style droid robots. With the character at mid-level already, they were a little tougher than beginners will find, so at first, when we tried just a straightforward assault with the "flubber" gun, they got the better of us. But after a short delay (death brings just a few seconds' respawn time, and then you can respawn and warp back into the battle through a respawn beacon), we went back into the fray, and when we used our special skills (put up a one-way forcefield and created a turret and a robotic pet to help us fight), we finished off the robots (including a "worker," who served to bring in reinforcements and had to be taken down first, and a bigger ED209-esque boss robot).

Next up, we tried jumping in to some PvP. Players in Global Agenda will be able to level up via either PvE or PvP -- PvE missions will accept 1-4 players, and while the enemies may be the same (though Harris said they were experimenting with putting players in at different spawn points or switching up enemy spawns a little bit to give the levels some more variety), they'll scale in difficulty depending how many friends you bring along. PvP missions are more common shooter settings (Attack and Defend, Capture the Flag, Escort), though sometimes with a special twist: The CTF maps are actually "capture the robot," where the flag is actually a giant mech that players need to jump in and return to their side to score.

This time, we specced a medic together, and saw a few of the different ways you can play that class: you can make it very much like a TF2 medic with just a single target healing gun, or go with a chain-healing gun (that can hit multiple targets with the tradeoff of being weaker), or you can choose a "nanite" weapon, which hits with single shots rather than a channeling stream, and provides a heal over time when they hit. All weapons and abilities are governed by an energy stat, which works like mana in other MMOs -- there's no ammo, so if you have energy, you can fire, otherwise you'll have to seek cover and rest. Lower level guns can be fired indefinitely, but more powerful guns have a rate of fire just limited by how much energy you use with each shot.

Turns out our medic did pretty well -- not only did we keep up some friendly players in the Attack and Defend map, but with the medic's boost ability (all classes also build up "boost" as they play, and when you fill that meter, you can use a special move that usually affects the whole team, very much like Call of Duty 4's perks), we laid down some great AoE healing that turned us into a pretty powerful force on our own, too. PvP was actually lots of fun -- given that the game is still in alpha, it wasn't completely balanced yet, but the feeling of a good shooter is there: we took attack points, Robotics turrets defended until they were overpowered, medics held up tanks through enemy assaults, and Recon characters snuck around with stealth and tried backstabbing with melee.

But while the action is in a good place, the rest of the world still needs work. Harris says that outside of battle, there will be similarly instanced social areas to go through, but the places we saw were still pretty generic: you can visit mission givers, buy armor in an auction house, and buy dye to customize that armor, but otherwise the social areas were pretty lifeless. There were still people running around -- the game is currently in an alpha, and is starting up a closed beta this summer -- but there's no open world, no place to watch matches in action, and no real social mechanics to tie people together. At the highest levels of the game, the world depends on huge guilds working as a team: players will be competing for hundreds of different maps to try and advance their Global Agenda (see what we did there?). But while there will be a pickup matchmaking system in place, with no open world, it'll be interesting to see how players find each other. A little social boost might go a long way.

But other than that, Global Agenda is shaping up well -- Hi Rez is doing a great job of mixing in some uncommon influences and combining them with the persistent MMO genre. We'll definitely be on the lookout for the beta later this year.

E3 2009: Global Agenda impressions, continued originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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E3 2009: Realtime World's Dave Jones speaks on APB

Seraphina Brennan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business models, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, All Points Bulletin, Crime

The announcement of EA handling APB's marketing and distribution was a pretty big one for Realtime Worlds, and creative director Dave Jones was on hand at EA's press conference yesterday to speak with Gamasutra about the game, the company, and the developments of APB.

Game wise, Dave has spoken a bit further on how the law vs. criminal battles will work out for the game. Criminals will be able to battle against criminals, but enforcers will never find themselves matched against one another. This will open up the possibility of multiple front wars with other criminal factions, rather than a simple two front game.

Also, the game will feature large scale battles as well as "metagroups" where the game determines balancing for players who are doing exceptionally well. Dave's example was a group of 5 elite players might be matched against 15 normal ranking players, just to give the elite players a thrill and the 15 a chance against these 5.

The full interview with Gamasutra goes into the company itself, partnering options, as well as more info on APB itself.

E3 2009: Realtime World's Dave Jones speaks on APB originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively's hands-on with Final Fantasy XI's April version update

Seraphina Brennan — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Expansions, Game mechanics, New titles, Reviews, PvE, Opinion, Consoles, Massively Hands-on

Prophecy, valor, campaign, and item augmentation, oh my! This latest version update was packed with goodies for the Final Fantasy XI player base, making sure that something for everyone was included in the game. I recently got the chance to sit down with the Final Fantasy XI team and play through some of the content, experiencing what their newest mini-expansion, A Crystalline Prophecy, had to add to the game.

Past that, I also had the chance to see the new Fields of Valor areas in action, aid the Mithras in defending Windurst from the beastmen during the Crystal War, and experience some of the hard tasks in the campaign missions first hand.

So does the April update get a thumbs up? Is Crystalline Prophecy worth the ten bucks? Those questions and more will be answered within.

Continue reading Massively's hands-on with Final Fantasy XI's April version update

Massively's hands-on with Final Fantasy XI's April version update originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 May 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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D&DO Module 7: Bosses

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

Filed under: Dungeons and Dragons Online, Game mechanics, Patches, PvE, Hands-on

The first fight we got to see was Suulomendes (unfortunately, that spelling might not be right -- the big winged guy wouldn't sit still long enough for us to ask his name), a winged devil who sits up on a big pedestal while he sends baddies out to finish the raid off, a wave a time. Every once in a while he deigns to get off the pedestal, and beat you up himself, but when he does, it's not pretty -- various curses fell down on our heads every time he showed up. It seemed like a fairly straightforward fight as we did it (defeat the minions, work over the boss for a while), but the devs told us there were quite a few wrinkles (and the fight would take a little longer) than what we saw.

The other boss we got to check out was, in our opinion, a little more fun. There is a Lord of Darkness supposedly hanging out in the dungeon below the Marketplace wreckage, but when you show up to take him out, he's not actually home -- his guard dog, named Xy'zzy, is, and she is a real bitch. Literally. She has puppies and minions that you have to fight as well, and oh yeah, one more thing: you can't actually damage her by hitting her. We'll refrain from telling you exactly how to take her out (the devs didn't want us to spoil all the surprises), but we will say that when you figure it out, you'll get to see something really, really hilarious happen. And yes, if you're nerdy enough to recognize the dog's name, you'll realize that these DDO devs know their gaming history.

Like many of the boss battles in DDO, both of these fights (and most of the quests we saw) were all about group coordination and cooperation. While a lot of the Three Barrel Cove quests are soloable, the devs at DDO seem committed to make sure that players find ways to coordinate and work together. They are still working on making sure the Monk has a role of his or her own to play in every group ("this is just the beginning of our development on this class," Paiz told us), but in almost all the quests we say, there were lots of ways for group members, no matter what classes or types of players they were, to make themselves useful.

But the new content isn't all that's being added to the game -- we also saw a number of new UI updates, and we got to talk with Turbine's communications director about what they thought of the Age of Conan release and the future of this game.

Click here to continue the preview...

D&DO Module 7: Bosses 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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