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Champions Online rolling out Role and Stat changes

Eliot Lefebvre — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, Free-to-play, Champions Online

Like many MMOs, Champions Online is at its heart a game of numbers. Your character type focuses on certain stats, and you want to make those stats go higher. But sometimes the way those stats work together is a bit less than intuitive in the live game, hence some recent changes to Super Stats and regular stats on the test servers. The biggest change assigns one primary and two secondary, rather than two Super Stats, to players, which alleviates the current problems with Super Stats (certain pairs of Super Stats work poorly together and are poorly represented in itemization).

Individual stats have also seen some tweaks: Strength is no longer hard-capped for melee damage, Presence has had its threat component removed and a soft-cap introduced, Ego is now solely a ranged stat, and Dexterity has seen improvements to its critical benefits. Roles are also being balanced differently, giving more consistent stat benefits that are more in line with what players in a given role will actually need to do. It's a pretty sweeping set of changes, but the end goal is to give Champions Online players a more straightforward numbers game to play.

Champions Online rolling out Role and Stat changes originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Exploring Eberron: Getting the most from the DDO Character Planner

Rubi Bayer — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Free-to-play, Exploring Eberron

Many MMOs share a common factor that can either be a fun challenge or a complete frustration: the inability to respec your character. From a lore or storytelling perspective, it makes perfect sense. You wouldn't train as an archer for years and become highly skilled then expect to change your mind one day and immediately be an expert swordsman.

Dungeons and Dragons Online is an MMO that has this characteristic. You can respec through reincarnation, of course, but it will cost you. Reincarnation gives you more points to spend, so it definitely has that advantage, but usually it's better to know what you're doing from the outset. I mentioned quite a while back that I recommend you cycle through a few low-level classes as a new player in order to get a feel for point distribution and the strengths and weaknesses of each race and class, but there's another tool that's well worth knowing.

Follow along after the jump and let's look at the DDO Character Planner.

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Exploring Eberron: Getting the most from the DDO Character Planner originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wasteland Diaries: Long-term goals

Edward Marshall — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fallen Earth, MMOFPS, Wasteland Diaries, Post-Apocalyptic

So you're a brand-new clone in Fallen Earth, dressed in your snappy LifeNet ensemble? So far you've managed to get yourself blown to bits inside the bowels of the Hoover Dam. Remember that awesome scoped battle rifle you were using? Well, forget that. The weapons you will be using for the time being will be a bit more primitive and a lot less deadly. Luckily for you, Elena Winters was able to respawn you safely away from the dam.

After being led around by the nose, you're no doubt ready to begin making some of your own decisions. I'm going to tell you that you aren't quite ready to do that. Not just yet. Before you go off on your own, there are some important things you need to know. These things I will tell you will save you a lot of trouble later on. I wish someone had given me all the information I'm going to give you, but I learned it the hard way. As they say: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This also holds true in Fallen Earth. Now that you're in a safe place, I'll get that handy information to you after the break.

Continue reading Wasteland Diaries: Long-term goals

Wasteland Diaries: Long-term goals originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Exploring advanced class concepts with SWTOR lead systems designer

Larry Everett — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, Game mechanics, New titles, Professions, Star Wars: The Old Republic

One of the great things about MMOs is their ability to cater to a lot of different preferences. Each player likes to be able to build a character that is her own unique design. This includes the character's look, clothing, armor, and especially combat role. Star Wars: The Old Republic has a unique challenge of building a BioWare-level of story for each character class and at the same time allowing the player to have enough variety in combat builds to satisfy different play styles.

In a developer blog just released on the official website, Principal Lead Systems Designer Georg Zoeller discussed the process around designing the advanced classes for SWTOR. "[W]e wanted to ensure that we had the flexibility to support several play-styles within each of these eight classes. So we built Advanced Classes into the game from the ground up to provide us with the ability to create and support different gameplay and roles inside each class," he explained in the blog. Although you will be forced to choose one of two advanced for each primary class, each advanced class has two possible pools of skill-sets to pull from as well as a shared pool between the advanced classes (illustrated in the header). Zoeller said this will allow for very unique combinations of skills. He gave the example of a stealthy healer for the smuggler scoundrel class.

For the full story, be sure to check out the full blog on the official website.

Exploring advanced class concepts with SWTOR lead systems designer originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Tattered Notebook: A newbie look at alternate advancement

Jef Reahard — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Opinion, The Tattered Notebook, Guides

So my little ratonga wizard is fast approaching level 50, and I figured it's high time I started worrying about his AAs. Actually, it's probably past time (he's got a paltry 29 at this point), as I've been too busy running willy-nilly around the world of Norrath flinging fireballs, exploring, and collecting junk for my South Qeynos rat hole. Yes, I've been terribly remiss about properly planning out an alternate advancement strategy so that my furry friend isn't horribly gimped upon his eventual arrival at endgame, but thankfully it's not too late (in fact, it's never too late, thanks to the awesome sauce that is chronomagic).

EverQuest II vets may be rolling their eyes at the prospect of an AA article, but for newbs on both the Live and F2P shards, alternate advancement can be a tad confusing if you're averse to reading a lot of tooltips. In this week's chapter of The Tattered Notebook, I'll break down EQII's AA system to give you a baseline of knowledge and a starting point for thinking about your own builds.

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The Tattered Notebook: A newbie look at alternate advancement originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earthrise character build brings the pain

Jef Reahard — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, News items, Earthrise

Things are starting to pick up on the Earthrise news front, and thank goodness. We gamers are a fickle and impatient bunch, and extended time out of the spotlight invariably brings cries of "vaporware!" and the like. Happily, Masthead Studios has begun to release more details regarding its upcoming sci-fi sandbox, including interviews, screenshots, and dev diaries. The latest diary appears courtesy of German fansite OnlineWelten and features the third in a series of character build articles designed to highlight aspects of the game's combat and equipment systems.

Moving on from last week's featured avatar, a ranged specialist named Tommie, the Earthrise devs have unveiled Freddy, who looks to be Enterra's answer to the traditional tank archetype -- albeit with a hefty dose of offensive capability thanks to the game's use of skills over classes. The dev diary goes into great detail regarding Freddy's skill build and also drops a few hints about his equipment (which includes the Translunex Corporation's Agony flamethrower as well as power armor). "He can lay waste to a carefully planned team build and as such, is a primary target... Freddy is one of the most powerful builds in Earthrise," says the article.

Earthrise character build brings the pain originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Exploring Eberron: Rolling the right character for you

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Classes, Free-to-play, Races, Exploring Eberron

Who are you whippersnappers? Get off my lawn or I'll blast ye into kingdom come! Shoo!

I mean, howdy! Sorry, I got a little startled there. We just found out this morning that Rubi, your faithful DDO columnist, was captured by a beholder and locked away in a level 20 dungeon. While the Massively DDO guild, OnedAwesome, faithfully levels up in a rescue attempt (every Wednesday night, 9pm eastern/8pm central!), I've been drafted to keep the column going until victory is assured.

Considering that a vast majority of my personal DDO resume is confined to levels 1 through 10, I have a soft spot for the newbie experience. And seeing how many fledgling dungeoneers are flocking to DDO these days, I figured I'd go back to the beginning to walk new players through the first week of the game. For you veterans out there, this would be a great time to (a) point out how much I say is completely wrong, and (b) offer up your own tips and advice in the comments section.

Today, let's start with one of the most vital decisions you'll ever make in the game: rolling a character. Hit the jump and let's hope for all 20s!

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Exploring Eberron: Rolling the right character for you originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wasteland Diaries: Building character

Edward Marshall — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fallen Earth, Classes, Game mechanics, MMOFPS, Wasteland Diaries, Post-Apocalyptic

When making a character in Fallen Earth, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. While I still have three of my four respec injectors, newly created characters will not get a respec. So it is very important to determine what you want your character to be before you start spending AP. Fallen Earth is a "classless" system, but most builds are differentiated mainly by their choice of weapon mastery, and these could be construed as the three classes. While choice of weapon type will be the cornerstone of the build, there are still a great many questions you will want to have answers to before you start to improve your stats.

But your first consideration should be what type of character you want to play. You will want one that suits your playstyle, but isn't completely gimped. My goal with this post will be to help make sure you have a plan before you start your build. Even though you can probably just assign AP at random and still make a viable (at least for PvE) build, you probably want your character to be the best that he or she can be, right? Now, I am not a character-building expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I have some experience with it. After the cut, I'll give you the tools and knowledge you need to build a solid PvE or PvP character. You will need to make the tough decisions yourself.

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Wasteland Diaries: Building character originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A Mild-Mannered Reporter: There's a spider in my room (VEAT level 24)

Eliot Lefebvre — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Classes, Game mechanics, Opinion, A Mild-Mannered Reporter, Guides

I want to give everyone a bit of an idea for how these illustrations come into being. After the first installment of the ongoing guide to villainous epic archetypes was on the plate, I let Ms. Fienemann know what I was planning so she would know what to draw. Once she drew that title image, I immediately laughed and noted how the middle soldier was sad. His name was Terry, and Jim and Earl (the other soldiers) were being jerks to him and not giving him even, like, a little bit of their lunch after Terry had fronted them both for coffee earlier in the week.

This week, Jim and Earl continue being mean to Terry despite not being in the drawing. And that just makes it funnier.

Where were we? Oh, right, leveling your epic villain archetype in City of Heroes. Or more accurately, making the big central decision to leveling your spider. By the time you hit 24 -- not very long after the last installment -- you're going to be neck-deep in a free respec that leads into unlocking the additional career paths for your character. Unfortunately, you're going to have to choose one or the other.

Continue reading A Mild-Mannered Reporter: There's a spider in my room (VEAT level 24)

A Mild-Mannered Reporter: There's a spider in my room (VEAT level 24) originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wasteland Diaries: Rifleman's lament

Edward Marshall — Fri, 28 May 2010 19:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fallen Earth, Game mechanics, PvP, MMOFPS, Wasteland Diaries, Post-Apocalyptic

Every MMO seems to have a build or class triad. The rock, paper and scissors system. Or tank, healer and DPS (damage per second). Armor, infantry and artillery. However you look at it, it seems like most MMOs are balanced using this rule of three. In Fallen Earth the triad consists of three weapon skills that define the basic builds. Though it is a classless system, characters are usually designed around their weapon proficiencies. Fallen Earth currently has a rock, scissors and rock-eating scissor-smasher. Prior to version 1.4, the flavor-of-the-month build was melee. Pistol builds have now taken the top spot. This, of course, is debatable, but not many can argue against the ineffectuality of the rifleman in Fallen Earth.

Pistoleers have never been the weakest of the three; in fact (at least since open beta) they have been very viable and well-rounded builds. They are arguably, now, at the top of the heap and the balance has been shuffled leaving riflemen still at the bottom. The unbalancing has also caused an unbalancing of the factions as the pistol-using factions are clustered on one side of the faction wheel. For the most part, dual-wielding has always been much better than two-handed weapons, and that still holds true with melee weapons as well as firearms. But the rift between pistols and rifles has grown while the rift between melee and rifles has shrunk. One thing gets fixed while something else gets thrown out of whack. The next step is to balance the game. Continue reading after the break for a more in-depth analysis.

Continue reading Wasteland Diaries: Rifleman's lament

Wasteland Diaries: Rifleman's lament originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 28 May 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fallen Earth dev journal: Character builds

Dev Blogger — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Screenshots, Fallen Earth, Classes, Guides, New titles, Education

Although classless advancement in Fallen Earth gives players more freedom to build the characters they want and level with skills of their choice, learning how to navigate a wide-open system can be a bit daunting for even the most experienced players. With a little help from the dev team and some crib note suggestions, players can learn how to make the most of the classless advancement system.

In Fallen Earth, characters may advance in rank and abilities regardless of their class or faction, and they can do so steadily. For each rank a character gains, players earn 2 AP (20 AP per level). Some APs can also be gained by completing missions, and all APs are spent however the player desires. The resulting system allows players to raise the skills and stats they think are most important for the character they play.

Continue reading Fallen Earth dev journal: Character builds

Fallen Earth dev journal: Character builds originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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