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EVE Online fixes boomerang exploit

Justin Olivetti — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Bugs, Patches, Sandbox

Pilots looking to duck the long arm of the law in high-security space will need to find another way to perform their nefarious deeds, as EVE Online released a patch today fixing the so-called "boomerang exploit."

CCP considered it an official and actionable game exploit to avoid CONCORD retaliation in high-security space by attacking a target right after the aggressor warps away or within the same grid in which the player earned a Global Criminal Countdown. Those who used the exploit prior to the fix could have found themselves dealing with a much scarier force than CONCORD: game masters themselves. Now, any player with a GCC will simply be unable to warp away.

Other than keeping boomerangs in the hands of kangaroos where they belong, Crucible patch 1.6.3 contains a few localization fixes, the ability to add a station as a waypoint or destination through the API, and some pesky client crashing issues.

EVE Online fixes boomerang exploit originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EQII producer teases March update info, promises more communication

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Patches, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries

New EverQuest II Producer Holly Longdale has completed her maiden voyage around the good ship S.S. SOE, completing her first month of reviews and meetings as future plans are laid out. Now that she's gotten her feet wet, Longdale wrote a short letter to the community about the general activities and focus of the team.

The March update -- centered around the Velious storyline -- is coming along, and the team will be unloading tons of information in the near future. Longdale reports that it's not just new content that the EQII crew is concerned about, as bug fixing and refining features are a major priority for the team's engineers. Players irritated with the quest feather graphic issue will be happy to know that it's high up on the priority list.

Longdale also let players know that she's paying attention to "big hot-button issues" with the game and is trying her best not to overlook anything. She wraps up her post sharing the meaning behind her dev name, Windstalker, and promising that she'll be corresponding with the community frequently from here on out.

EQII producer teases March update info, promises more communication originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SWTOR to get ability delay fixes but no Valor rollback [Updated]

Matt Daniel — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Bugs, Patches, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Oh, happy day! BioWare's Georg Zoeller has posted a new entry on the Star Wars: The Old Republic official site addressing the incredibly frustrating ability delay that has had players up in arms. Zoeller states that the team has found a number of issues, including abilities on cooldown being displayed as usable, unreliable instant abilities, and significant input delay in "certain game situations, most notably (but not limited to) fast-paced PvP."

The team has worked out the two former bugs and is scheduled to get the respective fixes onto the public test server in the next update. Work on the latter issue is in "the later stage of testing," and the team hopes to be able to roll it out onto the live servers "very soon." Here's to hoping that when Zoeller says soon, he means "soon" and not "soon[TM]."

[Update: A second dev blog, this one by BioWare's Jeff Hickman, explains the situation with Ilum PvP and why the team decided not to rollback Valor points in the wake of recent exploits. He does promise that the team will use game metrics to take action against the worst offenders if merited.]

SWTOR to get ability delay fixes but no Valor rollback [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SWTOR unsubscribe option goes missing for some [Updated]

Justin Olivetti — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:30:00 EST

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

Call it the Case of the Canceled Sub: Many players have written in to us to report that the "cancel subscription" button on their Star Wars: The Old Republic account pages has mysteriously gone missing. Considering that tomorrow is the one-month mark where accounts are set to be billed following the free month of gameplay for those who started on launch day, we think this is particularly troublesome.

Some players have found a workaround link but have received a warning and seen their threads shut down by moderators as violating the Rules of Conduct.

BioWare is investigating the situation and has alluded to an issue with certain types of browsers. In the meantime, the CS team has asked those affected customers to contact the company by phone for help cancelling their subscriptions.

BioWare is awarding those players who pay for an additional month of game time by March 19th with a special "Founder" title.

[Thanks to the many, many people who sent us this tip!]

[Update: In a correspondence with us, BioWare has confirmed ~~that it is aware of the website issue and is working to resolve it~~ that the issue is now fixed.]

SWTOR unsubscribe option goes missing for some [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SWTOR Senior Community Manager responds to high-res texture concerns

Matt Daniel — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Bugs, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Many keen-eyed Star Wars: The Old Republic players noticed that, while there were "low," "medium," and "high" options for the game's texture quality settings, there seemed to be only two different sets of textures, and neither of them includes the high-resolution textures seen in the game's cutscenes and conversations. As it tends to go with the MMO community, the forums were soon filled with cries of "WTFM8?"

And thus did BioWare's own Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid appear on the scene to clarify what exactly was happening. The low-medium-high texture quality scale is, he says, a bug, and the medium choice was never supposed to exist. So yes, the game has only two sets of textures, low- and high-resolution, but even the high-resolution textures don't look as shiny as the ones featured in SWTOR's cutscenes. And so the chorus repeated, "WTFM8?"

Reid drops a ton of technical information to explain why players can't run around with conversation-quality textures 24/7, but the fact of the matter is that an MMO could potentially have anywhere from one to who-knows-how-many people on-screen at any given time, and BioWare "discovered that using [...] 'maximum resolution' textures on in-game characters during normal gameplay could cause severe performance issues, even on powerful PCs."

That's the short of it, but if you'd like the full, unadulterated technical breakdown, just head on over to the official forum post for more info and screaming.

SWTOR Senior Community Manager responds to high-res texture concerns originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BioWare responds to The Old Republic performance issues

Matt Daniel — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Bugs, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Many Star Wars: The Old Republic players have raised complaints on the official forums about the game's technical performance. A disconcertingly large number of users report poor framerates despite lowering the game's graphic settings or running the game on a high-end PC. BioWare, however, is not convinced that there's anything wrong with the game, and instead the company asserts that users' lame rigs must be to blame.

OK, not really. But game director James Ohlen told Eurogamer that "most players aren't really having performance concerns" and chalks the reported performance issues up to low-end hardware. He goes on to add that "[the team] knows that it's important that there is a smaller group of people usually with lower end machines that are having problems in some areas. And one of the most important things for [the team is] to grow [its] service is to continue to bring in more players, including those players who only have low-end machines." In light of this, the studio has a team of developers who are devoted to fixing performance-inhibiting bugs, so if all goes well, we poor low-end-rig-users will be able to play the game comfortably soon enough.

BioWare responds to The Old Republic performance issues originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: When does a clever loophole become a bannable exploit?

Brianna Royce — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Bugs, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

Trouble has been brewing this week over a Star Wars: The Old Republic "exploit" in which people use seemingly legitimate (but perhaps unintended) game mechanics to tip the balance of the game in their favor. Of course, this is nothing new to veteran MMO players, who have seen hundreds, even thousands, of such loopholes and bugs spackled and patched since first MMO came online. Entire World of Warcraft guilds have been banned, however temporarily, for "exploiting" poorly coded raid AI, for example.

I've always felt that it's the game company's responsibility to counter loopholes before anyone takes advantage of them; the onus should be on the developer, not the player, to set the rules of the game using hardcoded mechanics. The players can't be expected to suss out the game-designers' intent, after all. Other gamers believe that "exploiters" really ought to know better and deserve whatever punishments the game's GMs mete out. What do you think? When does a clever loophole become a bannable exploit?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: When does a clever loophole become a bannable exploit? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 07 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This Week In MMO: Interrupting dance edition

Matt Daniel — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Video, News items, Humor, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Final Fantasy XIV

It's time for yet another episode of This Week In MMO, and you'll never guess what the topic du jour is. Well, unless you guessed Star Wars: The Old Republic (again), in which case you would be correct. Much discussion is had about the hilarity that was SWTOR's /getdown exploit, which allowed players to interrupt enemy mobs by... dancing at them.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy XIV will resume charging subscription fees tomorrow, January 6th, so if you're still subscribed and don't want to pay, you'd better cancel now. And lastly, on a note of complete and utter excess, the gang reports that one gamer (who we imagine spends most of his time swimming in his money like Scrooge McDuck) has spent $16,000 US on an in-game sword for Snail Games' F2P (irony!) title, Age of Wulin. The kicker? The game isn't even out yet. For the full video, just click on past the cut and have a look.

This Week In MMO: Interrupting dance edition originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SWTOR goes bug hunting with 1.0.2 and prognosticates PvP improvements

Justin Olivetti — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST

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

With the abundance of bugs and glitches in Star Wars: The Old Republic, fans are looking to James Ohlen's promise of weekly patches to shore up the faults. Yesterday we saw patch 1.0.2 go live with some -- but certainly not all -- of these fixes, as well as an increase in the PvP lockbox rewards and allowing players to emote while mounted.

In addition to yesterday's patch, today BioWare plans to roll out an emergency fix to address a few important issues: players crashing to desktop at character select, a problem with the chat channels in which they would stop functioning for some people, and the now-infamous /getdown bug.

PvP Lead Gabe Amatangelo also emerged from the BioWare fortress to chat about plans for the future of the game's PvP combat. According to Amatangelo, the team is working on level 50 brackets for warzones, vastly improving open world PvP on Ilum, a new same-faction vs. same-faction warzone, team vs. team queuing, ranked warzone matches, and more. He says that to date, over a million warzone matches have been played, with 39% of those matches played being Huttball and the Empire winning 53% of every match fought.

SWTOR goes bug hunting with 1.0.2 and prognosticates PvP improvements originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Breakdancing breaks SWTOR enemies' spirits [Updated]

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Bugs, Humor, Star Wars: The Old Republic

We've heard of many a bug and exploit in MMOs over the years, but sometimes there comes along one special case that is so entertaining you can't help but wonder if some mischievous developer planned it on purpose.

Such is the case with Star Wars: The Old Republic's latest glitch, where players busting a groove actually affects combat. According to several sources that confirmed this, by typing /getdown during combat (a dance move) enemies attacking you will be continually interrupted -- including bosses. Perhaps the bad guys were so amazed that players could do the moonwalk that they become stunned out of awe?

If you're hoping to wield your incredible dance powers for either the light or dark side of the Force, know that BioWare is fully aware of this exploit. Considering that the studio removed all mentions of the bug on the forums, we can assume that a fix is coming to the game sooner rather than later.

[Thanks to Kaizlu for the tip!]

[UPDATE: The Reverend Shaw Moore has arrived in SWTOR and accounts are being banned for getting down. Accounts taking advantage of this bug are being sanctioned with the explanation that the offending characters "participated in abusing game mechanics to prevent enemy NPCs from targeting the user", and that "dancing is currently not permitted outside of special Dance Zones."]

[UPDATE #2: BioWare sent us a note saying that the previous update was based on a troll posting to Reddit and that this is a "fake ban email."]

Breakdancing breaks SWTOR enemies' spirits [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fallen Earth's December State of the Game talks F2P transition, new features

Matt Daniel — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Bugs, Previews, News items, Free-to-play, Post-Apocalyptic, Dev Diaries, Sandbox

It's finally December, which means that I can go into a store and not fly into a rage when I discover that it's already playing Christmas music. It also means that it's time for Fallen Earth's December State of the Game letter. This is the first State of the Game since the title's change to F2P last month, so can you bet your hide there's a lot to cover. Marie Croall begins by talking about some of the "less sexy but ultimately critical things" that the team has been working on since the transition. Lots of bug-fixing has taken place as the Fallen Earth team works to iron out some of the kinks that arose during the F2P transition.

Meanwhile, the town of Embry got a bit of a makeover. The art team went into the city and "replaced high-poly, high-batch buildings with newer ones that will improve performance and the overall aesthetic appeal of the town." The team is also working hard at developing new content and features, such as world events, farms, and the upcoming augmentation system. Croall closes out the post with some dates: Territory control, the revamped map, new world events, and New Embry will be added to the game in mid-December, while everything else will have to wait until next year. For the full details, head on to the game's official blog.

Fallen Earth's December State of the Game talks F2P transition, new features originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Turbine explains recent LotRO forum security issue

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Bugs, Free-to-play

While Lord of the Rings Online's forums have returned following Turbine's decision to take them down due to a security issue, many players were left in the dark about what had happened. To clear the air with this, the studio posted a brief security FAQ that addresses the specifics of what went down this past week.

According to the FAQ, Turbine became aware of a compromise in the forum database that would allow unauthorized access from outsiders. The company took the forums offline, brought in security experts, and fixed the bug that caused this issue. Turbine also claims it has strengthened its web security and that no payment details, including credit card information, were in danger of being stolen.

As part of an effort to make sure all players were secure, Turbine sent out notices to a few customers with particularly vulnerable passwords. In the email, the players were informed that their passwords were reset for their own safety.

The FAQ ends with a few Dos and Don'ts about password creation which all MMO players would be wise to adopt.

Turbine explains recent LotRO forum security issue originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vanguard goes on a bug bash with a new update

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Bugs, Patches, Vanguard

If you're rubbing your eyes in disbelief, fret not, you're hardly alone. After a sea of silence from the Vanguard team, the struggling MMO is getting its first update in a very long time -- since January 2010, as a matter of fact.

This "bug bash" update is precisely what it says: a patch dedicated to fixing a number of troublesome errors in the game. These changes will impact the UI, repeatable events, items, abilities, and quests.

While the patch itself would be seen as a routine update in any other game, the fact that Vanguard players are seeing something after all this time is cause to celebrate. A month ago Sony Online Entertainment promised the community that it hadn't forgotten about Vanguard, so hopefully this patch is an indicator that the company plans to make good on its promise to support and expand the game.

Vanguard goes on a bug bash with a new update originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One Shots: Light as a feather

Rubi Bayer — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Guild Wars, Bugs, One Shots

MMO bugs and glitches can be funny in most cases and inconvenient in others. Some can even provide a unique perspective here and there. Today's One Shots comes to us from Mawgleah, who took an unintentional step onto, well, nothing while playing some Guild Wars:

Walking on air at Harvest Temple in Factions. Must be Kuunavang magic.

We've got room for more bugs, so send a screenshot of the funniest bug, glitch, or blooper you've come across to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here for everyone to enjoy and then give you the thanks!

Gallery: One Shots: 2011

One Shots: Light as a feather originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 May 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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APB Reloaded keeps us up to date on development

Krystalle Voecks — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Bugs, News items, Free-to-play, All Points Bulletin, Crime

It's always good to see a games company keep the lines of communication open in regard to an upcoming title. It's especially nice to see those frequent morsels of communication presented in an open and downright amusing fashion! The team behind All Points Bulletin: Reloaded is certainly managing to do just that, as we can see in its most recent update.

According to none other than the COO/CTO for GamersFirst, Bjorn "TechMech" Book-Larsson, the team currently working on ABP: Reloaded has made a huge find in terms of server bugs. Apparently, the way the current in-game death camera is coded, the entire sector hits a lag spike -- or as he puts it, "take[s] a brief 100ms moment of silence" when a player is killed. This, in turn, causes a lot of the rubberbanding that players see on their end. Finding this bug means that the team is now hard at work on a fix, and Book-Larsson is hopeful that we may even see it released to closed beta players within a matter of days.

If you're curious about the progress GamersFirst is making on APB: Reloaded, then be sure to head over and check out the newest blog post or go get signed up for closed beta!

[Thanks, Connor!]

APB Reloaded keeps us up to date on development originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: What bug has been around forever?

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Bugs, Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

It sits there, night after night, just waiting for you to log in so that it can leap out of the darkness and affix itself to your psyche. It's that little nasty bug in your favorite MMO that's been around, well, just about forever. On days that it drives you particularly nuts, you theorize that the dev team came upon this bug one day, found it appealing, and built an entire online game around it to give it a nice home.

The problem is that there are these seemingly indestructible bugs that everyone knows about, everyone complains about, and yet never get fixed. Maybe they can't be stopped, can't be reasoned with, and they will never, ever stop until you are dead... tired from complaining about them.

So if you had to pick one bug in particular that's been in your game ever since the beginning, what would it be? Is it a bug that you encounter on a regular basis, or a show-stopping whopper that only makes its appearance on a special occasion?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: What bug has been around forever? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE devblog tackles CCP's committment to fixing small issues

Brendan Drain — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Patches, News items

Several months ago, EVE Online forumite Akita T began the "thousand papercut project." The aim of the project is to collect a list of all those tiny issues that irritate players about EVE. Putting aside any large balance or mechanic problems, Akita T suggested that all the little issues developers have put off dealing with are now all adding up to have a huge negative impact on players. Supporters of the project will be pleased to know that CCP has taken notice. In a new devblog, game designer CCP Soundwave has explained plans to work on a long list of small issues during the current development cycle.

Having previously worked mainly on large projects like the Sansha incursions, CCP Soundwave's development team "Best Friends Forever" has already been hard at work on a variety of small issues, bugs and improvements that will be deployed soon. Among the many changes are improvements to the recently deployed incursion mechanic, including a much-needed change to deny the use of remote armour repairers and shield transporters on criminals. This closes a loophole griefers were using to trick incursion fleet logistics ships into being destroyed by CONCORD. Incursions should also last longer in highsec, and Sansha's forces shouldn't recapture lowsec or nullsec systems as quickly when encounters aren't being run. Head over to the devblog for a list of the first round of small issues tackled so far by CCP Soundwave and friends.

EVE devblog tackles CCP's committment to fixing small issues originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: Downtime deployment debate

Brendan Drain — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, PvP, Opinion, EVE Evolved

Earlier this week, an explosive argument broke out in the EVE Online community. Following an extended server downtime, it became known that Reddit-based alliance Test Alliance Please Ignore had used the server downtime to protect the deployment of 14 territorial claim units. Ordinarily, these claim units are vulnerable to attack for eight hours while they start up. The owner may choose to either commit a fleet to defend them for eight hours or leave them unguarded and hope nobody decides to knock them down.

This mechanic is designed to ensure that a force can't claim or attack a large number of systems simultaneously against opposition, as an alliance can't reliably defend several TCUs at once. By anchoring the structures just before the extended downtime occurred, Test Alliance made them invulnerable for their entire deployment time. A controversial debate then ensued, as GMs stepped in and Test pilots began making accusations of corruption, collusion and favouritism.

In this opinion piece, I weigh in on the latest debate to shake New Eden. I look at whether downtime deployment really is an exploit and whether there's any substance to the accusations made against EVE's Game Masters.

Continue reading EVE Evolved: Downtime deployment debate

EVE Evolved: Downtime deployment debate originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unintended source of passive income to be removed from EVE Online

Brendan Drain — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Economy, Patches, Professions

There are many of ways to make ISK in EVE Online, from mission-running and ratting to trading and research. Some methods, like mission-running, are very active processes in which the amount of ISK made is directly proportional to the amount of time spent playing. Other processes, such as trading or moon-mining, are largely passive endeavours in which ISK is made even while the pilot is offline. One such source of passive income, which has been around since the tech 2 invention system came in, is datacore collection. Players with high enough standings and the right skills trained in the science field can sign up to do research with various R&D agents throughout EVE. The agents automatically give players research points every day for free, which can later be redeemed for datacores to be sold on the market.

Datacore collection itself is an intended game mechanic, and this system for supplying datacores doesn't look like it will be changing any time soon. The issue is that characters on expired accounts will still accrue research points every day. Using this so-called "ghost research" loophole, some players have been farming datacores with an unfair advantage over active pilots. Abusers typically set up accounts with three research characters each, then let those accounts expire. Several months later, each account will be re-activated to harvest the datacores. In a recent devblog, CCP Soundwave explained that this issue came from a list of important player-voted issues that was presented to CCP by the Council of Stellar Management. The unintended loophole will be closed in a hotfix in the near future.

Unintended source of passive income to be removed from EVE Online originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tyrannis launch oversight destroys starbase market

Brendan Drain — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Economy, Expansions, Game mechanics, News items

After what seemed to be a smooth launch, it soon became apparent that EVE Online's Tyrannis expansion had brought with it several broken features. While the planet-scanning interface works fine and looks fantastic, the deployment of command centres was pushed back until June 8th. The materials produced on planets could not possibly be made until June 8th but on May 26th, tier 4 products from planetary interaction began appearing on the market. It wasn't long before EVE players figured out that you could refine NPC-sold starbase structures into high-end planet products. Starbase structures are one of the many things that CCP is switching from being supplied at fixed prices by NPCs to being produced by players through planetary interaction. The NPC supply was meant to be removed on May 26th but as players were currently unable to produce the structures, that change was delayed until June 8th.

Continue reading Tyrannis launch oversight destroys starbase market

Tyrannis launch oversight destroys starbase market originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 31 May 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE database issue causes thousands of items to go missing

Brendan Drain — Fri, 07 May 2010 18:45:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, News items

When the EVE Online server booted up today from its scheduled daily hour of downtime, GMs began receiving reports of missing items and disappearing market orders. After some investigation, CCP decided to shut the server down for an extended downtime to get to the bottom of the issue. The problem was eventually traced back to a database script responsible for recycling old itemIDs from trashed items and assigning them to new items. It was found that some new items being created in the database weren't getting IDs and so were becoming lost in the system. Up to 114,000 items may have gone missing during the 75 minutes that the server was up.

Continue reading EVE database issue causes thousands of items to go missing

EVE database issue causes thousands of items to go missing originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 07 May 2010 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Online devblog addresses recent server issues

Brendan Drain — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, MMO industry, Server downtime

EVE Online's server is a complex beast, holding the title of biggest supercomputer in the gaming industry. The main server cluster is housed in London and serviced by a team of IBM engineers. In addition to constant hardware upgrades to take advantage of the newest technology, CCP's network programmers work around the clock to improve performance and track down bugs that will affect the game. EVE is no stranger to lag or network issues and older players know all too well that server troubles are expected around patch days.

When the Dominion expansion was released, there were far more complaints of server issues than could be attributed to the usual "patch day blues". Now several months down the line we're still hearing horror stories of fleet battles lagging unbearably with only a few hundred players. The last few months have seen an increasing number of node deaths and database failovers, in some cases causing unscheduled server reboots. Read on to find out what CCP is doing to combat the issue.

Continue reading EVE Online devblog addresses recent server issues

EVE Online devblog addresses recent server issues originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aion money glitch gives trillions to players

Rubi Bayer — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Bugs, Server downtime, News items

A few Aion players on the Azphel server got a bit of a shock yesterday when a bug in the system presented them with more than 30 trillion Kinah as a reward. With that much extra cash floating around, the economy predictably went...well, completely insane.

The Auction Hall looked like opening day at the NYSE, and even fairly common items were selling for outrageous amounts of Kinah. The news spread outside of game very quickly, sending the Aion team into overdrive as they tried to figure out what had happened. (Since this isn't the first time something like this has happened to an NCsoft game, we imagine there was a game plan in place.)

The Azphel servers were taken down for "emergency maintenance" shortly afterward, and news of a rollback came down very early this morning, surprising absolutely nobody. As of now, the Aion team is planning to roll the servers back to 6:00 AM CST Monday morning, but they're not quite out of the woods yet. They have since found "a few additional bugs that are having a direct impact on the stability of the Azphel economy", and promise more information soon.

Aion money glitch gives trillions to players originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: What little bug is a big problem?

Eliot Lefebvre — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Bugs, Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Academic

You know the one. It's a tiny bug, a problem that only comes up once in a blue moon -- if it's even a problem and not just a slight problem like a model clipping issue. You really shouldn't care one way or the other, it's so irrelevant... but you care. You can't help but care. The very thought of it bothers you. And even though it's something so obscure that you're not sure if anyone has even bothered reporting it other than you, or so rare or so unnecessary, you still get angry when all sorts of other minor bugs get fixed and this one persists.

We're not talking about bugs that people can legitimately point to as impacting quality of play today, like the infamous Vanish bug in World of Warcraft. We're talking about those minor issues that you can't let go of, sometimes even long after you've stopped playing the game. What small and ultimately irrelevant bug just can't help but get your goat every time it comes up? How do you try to work around it? Have you reported it once, multiple times, or not at all with the expectation that the developers must know about it already?

The Daily Grind: What little bug is a big problem? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nate Levy explains WAR's action point fix

Brooke Pilley — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST

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

Mythic developers just fixed a major bug ~~that has been~~ in Warhammer Online ~~since launch~~ and it's having a big impact on players. Action points (AP) are the one-size-fits-all resource used to cast spells, perform damage attacks, and tank. Suffice to say, a change to the way AP works affects every class in the game. This bug fix makes it take a little longer for AP to regenerate as originally intended.

Many players claim that the time-to-kill in beta was much higher than it turned out at release, and while a dozen or more variables play a part in this (e.g., better gear, higher crit rates, newer strategies, etc.), AP regen can be counted among them. You see, after ~~the game released~~ game update 1.3.1 came out, players had a nearly limitless AP pool. In fact, AP regen potions were useless aside from getting a quick boost after sprinting. This led to many players getting in the habit of button-mashing their abilities without fearing a complete AP drain.

Now that the issue has been corrected, there's been a bit of an outcry from players who have become accustomed to playing WAR not as intended ~~for over a year~~. Mythic stresses that this change is for the better but will continue to monitor the situation and adjust accordingly. Check out Nate Levy's developer diary for all the details.

Update: This bug was discovered in 1.3.1 but we are unsure of when it originally made its way into the game. We apologize for jumping to conclusions based on our own experiences.

Nate Levy explains WAR's action point fix originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The hardcore language (filter) of Champions Online

Krystalle Voecks — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, Bugs, Opinion, Champions Online

While many folks we know really don't care too much about chat filters one way or the other, the rather overzealous chat filter in Champions Online seems to be causing some problems for players - and NPCs! Eric Heimburg over at Elder Game ran into some NPCs having their rather harmless (read: written by game designers) chat censored out due to the crazy filters. Based on his experience, he proceeded to spin an amusing tale of how he suspected the design and testing of that particular feature might have gone down to leave it in as touchy a state as it's currently in.

The rest of the post - well, some will agree with Eric, and some will wish he'd stuck with the sillier things about the chat filter. He goes on to refer to Champions Online as being in its "death throes." As this also isn't the first time we've seen weird things get filtered ("Sega" in Guild Wars, "Depp" in World of Warcraft to name two old examples) we wouldn't be surprised to see Cryptic Studios crank the sensitivity down a bit. That said, if you've ever run up against a chat filter garbling your words when you're just trying to be a @(&*!%^ the streets, pop over and @(*$%^! moment into reading about this particular way-too-touchy filter.

The hardcore language (filter) of Champions Online originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Online API sends apps offline

Krystalle Voecks — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Bugs, Server downtime, News items

As many EVE Online players likely already know, Tranquility's server hamsters decided to take an unscheduled nap yesterday, causing the entirety of New Eden to grind to a screeching halt. While we're glad to note that the servers came up some time later without any major problems, the forums and API remained offline until this morning's regular maintenance at 7:00 AM Eastern. While the folks at CCP were able to get the forums back online and working without incident, they opted to leave the API offline today while they're trying to figure out what happened. Better safe than sorry, we think.

For those of you who are occasional EVE Online players (are there really such beasts?) you'll notice the API shutdown in terms of changes not tracking properly in EVEmon, Capsuleer, or any other external programs that make calls to the API to pull your character information. The hope is that full functionality will be restored after tomorrow morning's regularly scheduled daily downtime. If not, might we suggest breaking out some chocolate covered espresso beans for the server hamsters?

EVE Online API sends apps offline originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Are MMOs truly as persistent as they claim?

Brooke Pilley — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion

The two biggest differences between single player RPGs and massively multiplayer online RPGs are the MMO and persistent components found in the latter. Player vs. Developer has a thought-provoking blog post up claiming that MMOs are not as persistent as they claim to be.

"Persistent" can be defined as "continuing without change in function or structure," which when you really think about it doesn't quite fit with how it is employed in most MMORPGs. Many MMOs claim to have a "persistent struggle," or "persistent world," which is only half true. Developers are constantly changing their MMOs and it impacts how we play.

What happens at the end of an expansion cycle? Often, players stop trying to progress and wait for the new content that makes old content obsolete. What happens when classes undergo constant balance shifts? Players are forced to compete on uneven playing fields. What happens when some gamers benefit from bugs or exploits before they are fixed? It can hurt player morale.

Many of these changes are for the best, but it does illustrate that MMOs are not truly as persistent as they claim.

Are MMOs truly as persistent as they claim? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 30 May 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Darkfall's forums and chat brought down due to heavy traffic, servers finally online

Seraphina Brennan — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Darkfall, Bugs, Launches, New titles, Server downtime, News items

Well the awaited hour has finally come true, Darkfall is online. While the delays have been numerous and the resulting traffic has basically crippled the Darkfall website, people are queuing up in the log in server to get a taste of what Agon has to offer them.

The delay was due to two problems -- the pre-order load and the staff had caught a critical bug in the game at the last moment. The heavy volume of pre-orders had taken longer to process than Aventurine had anticipated, leading them to delay the launch so more pre-orders could be properly processed. Afterwards, they delayed the launch again due to the wish of the development team to fix that last bug.

The heavy volume of players interested in the game's release had crippled the forums, shooting traffic to over double what it was at the launch of beta. Aventurine made the decision to bring down the game forums, instead only displaying a message regarding launch status on the forums page. This, in turn, brought more people into the Darkfall chat room run by Stratics, overloading that server and forcing Stratics to temporarily bring down the official chat.

Aventurine plans to relaunch the forums sometime today, with the hopes that they can keep the system online under all the duress. All current subscribers (those lucky few with boxes) will be given 33 days of subscription time instead of 30 to cover for all the delays.

Darkfall's forums and chat brought down due to heavy traffic, servers finally online originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WoW Insider declares Patch 3.0.8 a 'disaster'

Michael Zenke — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Bugs, Patches

What should have been a joyous occasion (the first big patch since Wrath of the Lich King launched) has turned into something bad. Like, just this side of "watching footage of the burning Hindenburg while Ride of the Valkyries plays and someone recites Thus Spoke Zarathustra" bad. We just discussed the fact that Arenas have been closed on the live servers, but there are a lot of other problems that have World of Warcraft players (rightfully) up in arms. The most vicious of these bugs was undoubtedly the Lake Wintergrasp glitch - one that literally made WoW unplayable for some time earlier today. The developers hotfixed a patch out that stopped the hard crashes, but there are still many, many frustrations facing players used to a high quality product from the Blizzard developers.

"Unbearable" lag, disconnects during raid fights, high-level class imbalances, graphical bugs ... the list goes on. Our sister site is even frustratedly noting that longstanding bugs slated to be fixed with this patch simply weren't ... and the bugs weren't even addressed in the patch notes the way you'd have expected. Read on through to WoW Insider's post about these issues for the full list and their frustrated request for better Quality Assurance in the future. Here at Massively we definitely hope you WoW players soon return to the polished product we all know Blizzard is capable of. In the meantime, let us know. What the heck do you think went wrong this time?

WoW Insider declares Patch 3.0.8 a 'disaster' originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One Shots: Mr Fantastic heads to WAR

Krystalle Voecks — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Warhammer Online, One Shots

We're not sure what's up, but it seems like there have been some strange graphical glitches cropping up in Warhammer Online recently. The good news is that none of them seem to be in any way game-breaking; they're just extremely funny-looking. First we saw a guard who decided it was best to run around without her armor on and somehow lost the top of her head along the way. Today we have a screenshot of a character who looks like he must be related to Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, considering how stretched out he is. There again, perhaps this is Plastic Man just out to get some MMO practice in before he gets rolling as an NPC in DC Universe Online? Who knows! In any case, a big thanks to Soni P. who sent this Warhammer Online One Shots in today, as well as sending a quick "Hi from Croatia!"

Seen anything strange lately? If so, snap a screenshot when you see it and send it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name and the game it's from. Descriptions are welcome but not needed. We'll post it out here for everyone else to gawk at and give you the credit for catching the weirdness.

Gallery: One Shots

One Shots: Mr Fantastic heads to WAR originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 10 Jan 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Player perception seemingly shifting in Age of Conan

Kyle Horner — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, News items

A lot of time has passed since Age of Conan launched last May and while some things never change, it seems like the player perception of FunCom's slightly misfired MMO doesn't want to play by the rules. It's a good thing, though, as a small poll seems to be showing. Now, we say small because the actual statistics in question only represent about one-to-two thousand participants. Still, as a snapshot of a community, that's not too bad.

So what's the overall verdict? Bugs, exploits, and stability have all seen rises in ratings over the course of three months. The votes have also tilted in favor of communication and content for FunCom. So while we stress that this isn't super-scientific by any means, it does point to more improvements and overall up-trending for a game that saw some pretty rocky rapids just three or four months ago.

Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

Player perception seemingly shifting in Age of Conan originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SSL certificate expiration complicates LotRO logins

Michael Zenke — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Bugs

Massively writers trying to play Lord of the Rings Online this Saturday morning stumbled into a mess that's apparently been going on most of the day; upon trying to log into the game, the following error appears: "The SSL certificate appears to be expired. Please ensure your system clock is set to the correct time and try again. [ERROR 80001]" Investigating the LotRO forums has uncovered an official thread from CM Tarrant resassuring players that Turbine's NetOps team is looking into it.

Meanwhile, players have already solved the issue. If you want to get into the game, just set your computer's clock back to January 1st. The complication there is that daily quests might then be tweaked out, and so further recommendations state you should set your computer's date and time to the correct values at the character select screen. Essentially, set the clock back to log in, and then reset once you're past the loader. Turbine assures this issue will be resolved soon, and we can't imagine this seemingly minor error will continue much longer.

Update: And resolved it was, at around 2pm ET. Sapience wants everyone to be sure to set their computers for the correct time if you used that as a cheap workaround. That should ensure the SSL error doesn't show up for you.

SSL certificate expiration complicates LotRO logins originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DDO's Shroud exploit closes raid until patch

Shawn Schuster — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Bugs

After "widespread griefing of players by other players using a game exploit," Turbine decided to finally take down the Shroud raid in Dungeon and Dragons Online to prevent further use of this exploit. This level 17 raid was introduced with Module 6 and through the bug, allowed a single cleric to deny other party members completion and the part 4 chests.

Although community reaction to the shutdown is mixed, as is expected, Turbine says the raid's issue will be fixed and the Shroud will be reopened on the next patch, which could come as early as next week.

DDO's Shroud exploit closes raid until patch originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WoW's 11th-hour server issues continue

Krystalle Voecks — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Bugs, Launches, Server downtime, News items

As the axiom goes, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. If that's the case, Blizzard's doing a pretty good job of setting up for the launch of Wrath of the Lich King at midnight. As many World of Warcraft players have undoubtedly noticed, the servers have been down off and on since the regular Tuesday maintenance window. However, history has shown that launches have been generally unkind to Blizzard's servers.

After the first maintenance extension, many suspected the downtime was related to the Battle.net account collation that Blizzard is implementing with Wrath. The servers came up briefly, but then the word went out that there was a problem with the in-game email system. Blizzard, trying to assure the community, sent a warning email to players letting them know that there was a problem with the in-game email system. The problem is that they notified everyone by emailing players through the messed up in-game mail system. You know, the one on the servers that were going back down to fix the mail problem. To their credit, they did post the message out on the forums, but there was a small catch there; the forums were up and down all day.

Update: As of 1pm EST, the WoW login screen states that all servers are back up and the service should be working as usual.

Continue reading WoW's 11th-hour server issues continue

WoW's 11th-hour server issues continue originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Short AoC downtime today will fix socketed item bug

William Dobson — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Bugs, Patches, Server downtime

At least a few people will be confused when opening their Age of Conan patcher to see that there is some downtime scheduled for today, after having the now-weekly patch take place yesterday. Today's downtime could be considered an "emergency patch" of sorts, as it is intended to correct an issue that arose from yesterday's update.

The offending bug causes certain socketed items to lose their sockets -- we are assured, however, that any socketed gems are still intact, and will reappear when the problem is fixed. The blanket figure of "5 hours" has been given for the downtime, which will commence at 7AM EDT on US servers, but community manager Famine has stated that it will likely be closer to 1 or 2 hours. The patch has already been deployed to the European servers, and their downtime was roughly 3 and a half hours going by this thread.

Short AoC downtime today will fix socketed item bug originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Conan's female avatar DPS bug will take weeks to correct

Michael Zenke — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Bugs, Patches

A few weeks back our own Adrian Bott took a close look at a very ... unique ... bug in Age of Conan. It seems that differing animation cycles in the game have resulted in an unforseen side effect: female avatars do less damage then male ones. At the time, the Funcom developers said they'd let us know as soon as they could about a fix. Today they let us know, but the news is mixed. The good news is that 'straight damage' (what they call white damage) has been fixed. Simple autoattack routines use few animations and they've all been fixed and pushed to the live servers.

The problem comes in with the much-vaunted realtime combat system, which requires heavy use of combos and unique animations. There are almost a thousand of those animations, and every single one will apparently have to be tweaked by animators and then retuned by a designer. "I know that many of you will probably be disappointed to hear that it might take us as much as another three to four weeks to solve this issue, for which I can only apologize, but we want to make sure that we devote the amount of time that an issue of this magnitude and importance deserves ... I have to stress that even with our internal goal set and everything currently proceeding on schedule I cannot currently promise that this will be patched to Live at the projected date."

Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Age of Conan destination page, including all of our interviews, hands-ons, galleries and original features!

Conan's female avatar DPS bug will take weeks to correct originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CoX addresses the dreaded sync bug

Adrian Bott — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Bugs, Patches

Imagine it: you fasten the brooch on your cape, buckle on your piston boots, and stroll out of the door of your super base, only to find a deserted city before you. The City of Heroes - or Villains - is abandoned.The buildings are still standing, but there are no people. Familiar contacts are gone from their street corners. No pedestrians pass by and wave to you. Places that are usually abuzz with player chatter, like Atlas Park, are silent. Even the villains are gone. You are the only living thing anywhere in this desolate place.

It's not post-apocalyptic CoX, it's the result of a bug that has been around for a while, but has been cropping up a lot more with the last round of patches. The 'sync bug', as it is known, gets the client out of sync with the server. You can move around, but you can't interact with the other elements of the game world. It's spooky, and it's very frustrating.

Continue reading CoX addresses the dreaded sync bug

CoX addresses the dreaded sync bug originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Runescape cheater exposes his 'black market' organization

James Egan — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Bugs, Exploits, Game mechanics, Making money, RuneScape, Legal

PlayNoEvil points out an interesting blog entry on cheating in Runescape. The poster, who wishes to remain anonymous, describes himself as a retired Runescape cheater who devoted five years to the 'darker side' of the game. He states, "This article details all the intricacies of Runescape and cheating and what really goes on behind the scenes, I assure you that it will surprise you."

The poster, identified only by the name ThirdEyeOpen, lays out how cheaters and buyers operated as a would-be organized crime ring. 'Welcome to the Dark Side' is his chronicle of how he began his Runescape cheating career, and how it all ended. He recounts being 'interrogated' online by Jagex Ltd. about his activities, and how the subsequent account banning led to a malevolent wish to get even. His anger eventually snowballed into the creation of an organization of similar-minded individuals, mostly other teenagers, who accumulated a fair amount of real-world currency through exploits in Runescape before cashing out altogether. It's an interesting read -- perhaps a bit disturbing in the sense that he views cheating as a kind of playstyle -- but worth checking out all the same.

Via PlayNoEvil

Runescape cheater exposes his 'black market' organization originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Age of Conan: mostly armless

James Egan — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Bugs, Humor

Damion Schubert, a long-time game developer, runs a personal website called Zen of Design, where he tackles any number of issues in MMO design. Sometimes, though, he just throws out random bits of goodness like this Age of Conan experience:

Tonight in Age of Conan, someone jumped me while i was doing something else, then proceeded to perform a fatality on me. It was one I hadn't seen before, and it involved him chopping off my arms, then chopping off my head. Which is cool and all, but after I respawned, I didn't have any arms. It was a purely visual bug - I could still fight and quest and whatnot. Still, I spent the next hour trying to find out which animations looked goofiest with stubs cut off at the elbow (dancing is good, stealth is better). Unfortunately, it was only an error on my screen, which meant that me screaming 'It's only a flesh wound!' in town probably made little sense to those who passed by.

Given how new Age of Conan is, bugs and glitches like this are likely to keep turning up. Has anything similar, or funnier, happened to you in Age of Conan?

Age of Conan: mostly armless originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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