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Perpetuum dev blog talks new features, Interference system

Jef Reahard — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, News items, Perpetuum, Dev Diaries

Wondering what's going on in the world of Perpetuum? Wonder no more, as the official Perpetuum dev blog has been updated with news of today's patch as well as a number of both client and gameplay tweaks. First on the agenda is the fact that Avatar Creations is now offering two new languages for its sci-fi sandbox, and we're sure both the Slovenian and French-speaking communities will appreciate it.

The patch also features the introduction of a new heavy mech robot (the Lithus), which "can be thought of as the big brother of the Sequer, and will satisfy all your hauling needs" according to Avatar's BoyC. Next up are a couple of additions to the character screen in the form of trophies and losses followed by the coup de grace of this particular patch: the Interference system.

In a nutshell, Avatar is attempting to address the fact that players are clustering together in PvP and one-shotting opponents due to a mass of concentrated firepower. The designers intentionally avoided implementing friendly fire and robot collision detection in Perpetuum, and the Interference system "simulates the effects safely fighting in a close group would have on the combat effectiveness of the group in the real world. Basically members of the group would have to be more careful not to shoot any of their comrades, and thus be slower to fire and would have to devote a lot of their attention to working together with their unit."

Perpetuum dev blog talks new features, Interference system originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xsyon beta update adds architecture skills, revamps terrain

Jef Reahard — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Bugs, New titles, News items, Xsyon, Post-Apocalyptic

Yep, Xsyon's still around, and the post-apocalyptic sandbox MMORPG from Notorious Games continues its beta testing phase with a full client and server update this week. The patch has also wiped all your beta characters as well as the world terrain, making way for smoother texture revisions that should be visible as you read this.

Other significant patch details include the architecture skill (which allows players to create walls and buildings), the masonry skill (designed to complement architecture), and various tweaks to combat and characters. Among these is a revision to the alignment system that flags both defenders and attackers. Finally, the new client boasts several bug fixes related to collision detection, memory leaks, and animation fixes.

Check out the full list of improvements on the official Xsyon forums.

Xsyon beta update adds architecture skills, revamps terrain originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Age of Conan's Morrison talks tech upgrades

Jef Reahard — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, MMO industry, News items

Age of Conan's Craig Morrison is back with his latest monthly development update. The October edition is very tech-heavy, with a lot of emphasis on the tweaks and additions that Funcom engineers have been making to the game's Dreamworld engine. While a lot of the details may go unnoticed to your average player, the goal is to continue improving the game's performance as well as add tools to further content creation down the road.

Of particular note are the additions of Lua scripting capability (to facilitate dynamic events), improvements to the game's collision detection (and the implementation of nVidia PhysX), and tweaks to both DX9 and DX10 clients.

Morrison also confirms that Guardians will be the next class to receive a substantial update. He also clarifies the upcoming PvP minigame changes. Check out all the details on the official forums.

Age of Conan's Morrison talks tech upgrades originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Black Prophecy technical director on game's physics

James Egan — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, Black Prophecy

Black Prophecy from Reakktor Media is a sci-fi MMO that may ultimately be a bit more accessible to some gamers than reigning sci-fi champ EVE Online. It will be a very different sort of game than EVE, though. In fact, there is still much about Black Prophecy that has yet to be revealed, but the title's certainly got potential from what we've learned so far. While we're hoping to have more information for you about Black Prophecy in the coming months, the team at Reakktor Media is keeping fans up to date with dev diaries explaining some of the different facets of the game. The latest series of these blogs on the game's physics is being written by Black Prophecy's Technical Director Cyrus Preuss, which he continues today by focusing on the physics engine itself.

His dev diary is a bit technical, but not all that difficult to follow either. Cyrus explains the concepts of the "physics loop" and the factors which ultimately define the game environment in space. (This includes collision detection, which triggers particle effects and sound effects, but there's quite a bit more to it than that.) If you're curious about this aspect of Black Prophecy's game design, have a look at Cyrus's dev diary or jump into the discussion by the fans on the game's official forums.

Black Prophecy technical director on game's physics originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Latest Ask Cryptic explains space combat tactics in Star Trek Online

James Egan — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Star Trek Online

A nice thing Cryptic Studios has been doing across their MMO titles in development is "Ask Cryptic", where fans of Star Trek Online (and Champions Online) pose questions to the developers and get answers. The latest (and tenth) Ask Cryptic for Star Trek Online covers a wide variety of topics.

Cryptic explains a bit about space navigation in Star Trek Online, done via three levels of maps -- sector space maps (planets, solar systems, space stations, nebulas, anomalies), system maps (3D), and ground maps which include the surface of planets for away missions as well as space station interiors. They also address a strength of Star Trek Online that not all MMOs have -- entity into entity collision. What does this mean for STO players? Ramming speed! In fact, that will be one of the skills players can select. Cryptic explains the advantage to this, with one caveat: "Keep in mind, if your ship is already badly damaged, you may not want to ram into a fully intact Borg cube, for example. That would be a bad idea. On the other hand, if you know you're going to lose, you could ram into them, hit the self destruct and take them out with you."

Continue reading Latest Ask Cryptic explains space combat tactics in Star Trek Online

Latest Ask Cryptic explains space combat tactics in Star Trek Online originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 03 May 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Funcom responds to concerns following first instances of AoC's "Massive PvP"

William Dobson — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:15:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Bugs, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP

Age of Conan players have started getting to the stage where they can partake in the game's much-hyped "Massive PvP" -- the first battlekeeps are up, and you can be sure that people are all too keen to go and knock them down. However, it seems that the first wave of these epic battles have not gone so smoothly, and not just for any guilds left with a pile of smoking rubble.

Funcom has posted on the official forums (with the actual message being penned by Gaute Godager) in the hopes of reassuring the community that the problems that have been experienced with these battles are being looked at. The main issues are identified as those of client performance, and those of content and collision. Client performance is apparently the biggest problem being reported, and even before people started to get into massive PvP, some fixes to do with this have been worked on behind the scenes.

Continue reading Funcom responds to concerns following first instances of AoC's "Massive PvP"

Funcom responds to concerns following first instances of AoC's "Massive PvP" originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The importance of collision detection in PvP

Shawn Schuster — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, PvP, Warhammer Online

Collision detection in an MMO is just one of those things you may take for granted. If it works, you don't really notice it. If it doesn't work, it's a fun little exploit to hide in a rock and amaze your friends! But collision detection is becoming increasingly important in upcoming MMOs such as Age of Conan and Warhammer Online because of their predominant PvP natures.

So in a recent post at Relmstein's blog, he dissects the different types of collision detection, how they work and in which situations they would be most useful. These situations can range anywhere from player-to-player, player-to-fixed-object or player-to-moving-object collision. Each one requires its own type of algorithm which reacts differently when applied. Most of these detection methods would be set in place to avoid exploit, but can be tricky when it comes to things like line-of-sight.

The importance of collision detection in PvP originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Age of Conan's defense system detailed

Kyle Horner — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Age of Conan, Game mechanics, News items

Everyone is familiar with the tried-and-true combat systems found in just about every MMO to date, although more games are becoming the exception as time goes on. Age of Conan happens to be one of those exceptions and with its very active directional combat system comes some new ways to manage your defenses during the heat of battle.

Funcom has gone and made an informative overview of all the different ways to 'defend thy self' in their upcoming Hyborian online adventure. It's a good thing they have too, because there is a lot to consider when keeping your head firmly attached to your body in this game.

Continue reading Age of Conan's defense system detailed

Age of Conan's defense system detailed originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Collision detection in WAR's PvP

Mike Schramm — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:00:00 EST

Filed under: Game mechanics, PvP, Warhammer Online

I hadn't heard that WAR would have collision detection (it must be in the whole game, right? can't only be in PvP, can it?), but Hardcore Casual did, and just like him, I'm very interested in the possibilities. He cites it as a problem of premades and PuGs-- premades will know much better how to deal with line-of-sight and positioning and formation problems, while PuGs will trip over themselves trying to get past someone else. Me, I see it more as a problem of pranks and griefing. In World of Warcraft, where Blizzard hasn't implemented collision detection, they're already having issues-- giving players the ability to block space in large numbers just opens up a whole world of griefing.

But as HC says, it's all in the implementation-- it may be that some things need line-of-sight, while others (spells and such) don't, and any blockage depends on just where the hitboxes are-- if characters can sneak past each other, or are able to push each other out of the way, then that would change any plans.

It'll be interesting to see how it all pans out, however. Collision detection is a minefield for developers, but can definitely lend itself to new types of gameplay. While most MMOs have avoided the issue entirely, we'll have to see if WAR is willing to hit the issue (so to speak) head-on.

Collision detection in WAR's PvP originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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