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Big faction changes coming to Fallen Earth

Jef Reahard — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Free-to-play, Post-Apocalyptic, Dev Diaries

Big changes are coming to Fallen Earth's faction system, and the latest GamersFirst dev diary has the details. Lead designer Marie "Aro Sei" Croall says that the devs "want to make sure it is clear to all players who they are fighting for and who they are against."

The current faction dynamics can be confusing, she explains, and GamersFirst feels that Fallen Earth's learning curve can be smoothed out "without dumbing it down." To do so, shoulder factions are being removed, and wastelanders will need to pick a faction and remain loyal to it in order to earn points. Missions may be accepted from three factions, but only the primary faction will determine PvP objectives, missions, and faction channels.

Finally, the devs are removing factional friendly fire except in cases of clan wars, bloodsports, or dueling gameplay. Croall says this is intended to curb same-faction griefing, and ultimately contribute to "a less jarring PvP experience in Fallen Earth."

Big faction changes coming to Fallen Earth originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TERA's PvP features light death penalty

Jef Reahard — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, News items, TERA

The TERA news beat has fairly quiet recently. Aside from the Korean server merges, there hasn't been a whole lot new to report regarding the exiled realm of Arborea. Fansite TERAPvP to the rescue, then, courtesy of an interview with En Masse community manager Evan "Scapes" Berman.

The interview is brief, and if you've been the following the game closely, you've probably heard most of this before. For casual fans, or those just getting wind of all things TERA, there are a few interesting PvP nuggets that might be worth your time.

First up is the question of character transfers between PvE and PvP servers. TERAPvP points out the balance issues inherent in allowing players to level (and gear up) their characters on a PvE server before moving them to a PvP shard. Berman doesn't give a definitive answer as to whether this will be allowed or not, saying that it's something En Masse will "have to evaluate for TERA." Friendly fire is also a no-go in TERA's PvP combat, and there is no experience loss or item degradation. As Scapes says, "items in TERA do not have a durability mechanic."

TERA's PvP features light death penalty originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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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Roskilde University to open super-hero city and host machinima contest

Tateru Nino — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, Contests, Events, in-game, News items, Second Life, Academic, Virtual worlds

Danish Roskilde University in Trekroner, Roskilde is celebrating the art of machinima with a competition kicking off in Second Life later this week. The competition coincides with the opening of the university's new Second Life research-center, "Metrotopia - City of Superheroes."

The launch event kicks off on Friday, 28 August at 11:30AM SLT (US Pacific time), and the details of the competition will be announced in conjunction with the opening address at Noon SLT.

Continue reading Roskilde University to open super-hero city and host machinima contest

Roskilde University to open super-hero city and host machinima contest originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earthrise dev chat discusses beta and first in-game video dates

Kyle Horner — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:00:00 EST

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

For anyone who missed it, the guys over at MMORPG.com have posted the transcript from last Saturday's Earthrise dev chat. The two big pieces of information to come out of the talks were beta start and in-game video dates -- both of which seem to be happening around GDC09 or sometime shortly after the end of March. Although other topics were discussed, such as weapon customization and the issue of having no friendly-fire in PvP combat.

In fact, that last question came up twice during the chat, with players wondering how PvP zerg tactics were going to be dealt with by the developer. The general answer was that it will be looked into during the beta testing phase and dealt with then. If there's one thing we've learned from past experiences, it's that players will go to immense lengths to break a balanced system. To that end, we wish developer Masthead Studios the best of luck in balancing this particular issue, as they're probably going to need it.

Earthrise dev chat discusses beta and first in-game video dates originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Live musicians: Friendly Fire

Tateru Nino — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:30:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Second Life

As Real Life slams into Second Life at a great rate of knots, ask yourself this -- are you adequately prepared to rock and/or roll? Actually, the answer to that question is moot, because if you're not, Friendly Fire has enough rock and roll to cover everyone!

Friendly Fire -- the dynamic duo of Case Munro (guitar and vox), MacKenzie Rasmusen (bass and vox) and "Soft Ware" (drum machine) -- rocked the stage and the crowd to their foundations at The Beach Bum on the Monday eve that we caught their act; They truly brought the place down with glamtastic tunes, proud, prominent bass and amazing breath control, and then built it back up with their beautifully political and catchy lyrics. Highly charged punk power-pop all around.

Continue reading Live musicians: Friendly Fire

Live musicians: Friendly Fire originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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