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Some Assembly Required: A look at Vendetta Online

Jef Reahard — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, Some Assembly Required, Sandbox

The setup is pretty familiar.

It's an MMO, it takes place entirely in outer space, and your avatar is your spaceship. There's a lot of trading, a lot of missioning, and PvP if you want it -- possibly even if you don't. Crucially, there's freedom to go your own way and precious little hand-holding. It's clearly inspired by Elite, and there's a fair bit of the X series in there as well.

Nope, I'm not talking about EVE Online but rather Vendetta Online, an indie sandbox MMORPG that actually has more in common with classic space-trading sims than it does with CCP's New Eden.

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Some Assembly Required: A look at Vendetta Online originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Behind the Mask: The separation of newbie and expert

Patrick Mackey — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, PvE, Opinion, Free-to-play, Champions Online, Behind the Mask

Last week on Behind the Mask, we got into a little discussion about why Champions Online's Elite difficulty needs to be buffed (and possibly also the very hard difficulty as well). This led to a discussion of whom Elite would be tailored for. I'm sure this is a big issue over at Cryptic right now. If Elite is increased in difficulty, whom should it be designed to suit?

I was asked this burning question a few times, and I've made my opinion clear: that Elite should be for the top tier, the tip of the iceberg of player ability. Don't take that to mean Gold players only. There is a sharp divide between an expert Silver player and a poor Gold player. In fact, the poor Gold player is likely to be worse than a bad Silver player. How good is good enough? This week, we'll find out.

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Behind the Mask: The separation of newbie and expert originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Behind the Mask: Elite doesn't mean casual

Patrick Mackey — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, PvE, Opinion, Free-to-play, Champions Online, Behind the Mask

Back in the early days of Champions Online, there was no difficulty slider. We got stuck playing the same stuff regardless of player or character ability, and often that meant high-skill players and their nigh-invincible god characters smashed through insignificant minions like freight trains. When Serpent Lantern launched, Cryptic added in difficulty settings, beginning at the base normal difficulty and ending at very hard. Later on, the devs added an Elite difficulty, touted to be even tougher than VH.

Since then, high-powered heroes have had a way to challenge themselves... sort of. When Serpent Lantern first launched, doing it on VH was reasonably challenging due to the many annoyances (mostly pulson guns) placed in it by the dev team. When players rightfully complained that the pulson guns ripped through well-statted tanks, the devs nerfed the guns and the difficulty became mostly a joke. Normal difficulty is still mostly synonymous with "cakewalk," while Elite is more like "sorta dangerous, maybe."

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Behind the Mask: Elite doesn't mean casual originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wings Over Atreia: Boss world tour -- Inggison

MJ Guthrie — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, PvE, Wings Over Atreia, Guides

Back in January, Wings Over Atreia brought you the first installment of a series highlighting the who, where, what, and even some how of Aion's world bosses. At that time, we took a tour around the land of Heiron and met up with those tough (and some not-so-tough) bosses who taunt players with their juicy, coveted loot. But Heiron is for youngins; this week, we will focus our tour on the playground of the highest levels, the lands of Balaurea -- specifically, Inggison.

It never fails -- the best goodies are never the easy-to-get goodies. As much as Daevas may want to get their hot little hands on some of the weapons, armor, and crafting materials dropped by these world bosses, they have to first find these giants and second actually defeat them. So much easier said than done. On the bright side, some of the mobs are easier to kill and can even be soloed (although they are also well-camped). On the not-bright side, others don't seem to show their faces as often as hungry loot-hunters would like, or they take a friend or 20 to take down. So what's a Daeva to do?

Soar past the cut for some tips, tricks, and a handy map for seeking out those Inggison bosses and convincing them to give up their loot.

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Wings Over Atreia: Boss world tour -- Inggison originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Fantasy XIV launches another notorious preview

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Previews, News items, PvE, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV

We're not sure exactly when Final Fantasy XIV's large December update will be going live, but we do know that one of its major inclusions will be the addition of notorious monsters. The first of these powerful beasts has already been previewed, but a new one is now being shown for all to see... not that it would be easy to miss the enormous Tarbh Uisge. One of the last great buffalo, his mind has been eaten away through years of suppressive magics, leaving him as a bundle of violent rage.

Tarbh Uisge appears to be in the same category as the previously demonstrated Deadeyes in more ways than one. This great beast is linked to a levequest as well, but he also drops the same set of runestones as his contemporary. The Templar armor previewed alongside the buffalo, therefore, can be obtained by players slaying either beast and accumulating drops, which frees players to pursue both or neither as they see fit. Final Fantasy XIV should be releasing this newest opponent in the near future, which should yield a notable boon to everyone not trampled underfoot.

Final Fantasy XIV launches another notorious preview originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Waging WAR: Elitist alliances and RvR

Greg Waller — Sat, 29 May 2010 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, Guilds, Warhammer Online, Opinion, Humor, Waging WAR

No matter where you go in the MMO-verse, rivalries are bound to happen, and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is no different. In most cases, these rifts are the exception and not the norm; whether they manifest as a heated argument in scenarios, or a realm-wide feud between established guilds or alliances, there's always going to be some sort of drama. This week, Waging WAR takes a look at how the exception to the rule can affect the game as a whole.

A few days ago I was playing on one of my Tier 2 alts running around with an open warband in the Shadowlands. We were taking some keeps and battlefield objectives for renown and influence, since the Tier 2 High Elf elite influence item is well worth the effort. As it turns out, a few of my guildmates were also leveling in the same warband. We ran into a keep defense at Spite's Reach that we weren't really prepared for, but we managed to muster a decent siege in short order. The hot oil started pouring and some area-of-effect magic started to blanket the warband on the ground as we pounded on the door. One of the players in my guild, a dedicated veteran (though not an officer), refused to heal someone else in the warband. I asked him why and he told me that it was because the person was in another specific guild, with no real reason beyond that simple fact.

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Waging WAR: Elitist alliances and RvR originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 May 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMOrigins: Life's funny like that, page 2

Brendan Drain — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:00:00 EST

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MMOrigins: Life's funny like that, page 2 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMOrigins: Life's funny like that

Brendan Drain — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Real life, Culture, Opinion, Virtual worlds, MMOrigins

We all got started gaming somewhere. For a lot of people, it was the Sega Mega-drive, the Atari 2600 or the NES that signaled their first steps into gaming. For me, it was the Commodore Amiga, a machine that was more a complete home computer than a games console. It was on the Amiga that groups like Team 17, Ocean, Electronic Arts and Blizzard first really made their mark on gaming and it was a great time of innovation in the industry. I recall long nights spent playing Frontier: Elite II, scooping hydrogen fuel from the corona of a star or wormholing into deep space. Another favourite that I still play occasionally was K240, an early space 4x game and still one of the best I've ever played.

It was the public domain market on the Amiga that really caught my attention. It's one thing to play a game, but here was the opportunity to make one and sell it via a page in CU Amiga magazine or a PD order disk. I've always been more interested in making games than playing them but being young with no programming experience, I was limited in what I could do. I tooled endlessly with the "Shoot 'em up Construction Kit" and "Reality Game Creator" packages, making countless primitive prototype games that only I ever played.

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MMOrigins: Life's funny like that originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Masthead Studios explains crafting and mass production in Earthrise

James Egan — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, New titles, Crafting, Earthrise

Earthrise is an upcoming sandbox MMO that will have strong emphasis on guild-vs.-guild conflicts and PvP. The game will also have a deep crafting system, something that may interest players looking for more than PvP in a sci-fi MMO. Earthrise developer Masthead Studios has stated in the past that it'll be possible for players to craft unique, customized items and perhaps even establish a reputation for producing certain wares. The latest Question of the Week answered by the Earthrise developers sheds a little more light on how crafting and mass production will work in the game. Specifically, Masthead Studios explains how mass production will apply to some of the game's rarest craftable items.

Moll, Earthrise's Community Manager, explains how a blueprinting process creates Designs which are used by crafters; these are essentially templates combined with ingredients/materials to create items. Each Design will have a finite property called Edge which gets burned off over time through the manufacturing process. The limited use of Design Edges mean that the game's rarest or most elite items can't be created in large production runs, in other words keeping them rare and elite in a game where mass production is possible.

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Masthead Studios explains crafting and mass production in Earthrise originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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