Make My MMO: Ashes of Creation’s Kickstarter, ROKH’s early access, Valiance’s map (May 6, 2017)

albion online

Official Site: Albion Online
Studio: Sandbox Interactive
Launch Date: N/A
Genre: Fantasy PvP Sandbox
Business Model: N/A
Platform: PC

Make My MMO: Ashes of Creation’s Kickstarter, ROKH’s early access, Valiance’s map (May 6, 2017)

May 6, 2017 Bree Royce 7 comments

This week in MMO crowdfunding, Ashes of Creation made the leap to Kickstarter, raising (so far as I type this) 1.35M, far more than its $750,000 goal. The game has kept the MMO community busy all week, though it hasn’t been without its issues.

On the survival sandbox front, Mars-themed ROKH released a new trailer and screenshots. It’s slated to hit early access later this month.

Meanwhile, Legends of Aria (fka Shards Online) suffered a delay, Crowfall has a big reveal coming in May, OrbusVR ran its second (brief!) closed alpha with the runemage rework, Grim Dawn teased its upcoming new gear and Inquisitor in a new trailer (below), Pantheon unveiled the Monk, Elite Dangerous’ Salome event ended in disaster, and Valiance Online posted several updates — including a mock-up of its map!

Read on for more on what’s up with MMO crowdfunding over the last week and the regular roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’ve got our eye on.

Betawatch: Ashes of Creation is burning up the Kickstarter (May 5, 2017)

May 5, 2017 Eliot Lefebvre 2 comments

Remember when Ashes of Creation showed up out of nowhere? We sure do, and now it’s hit Kickstarter. It’s also hitting stretch goals left and right after hitting its funding goal quite quickly. We’ve even got a pair of interviews about it, one regarding the game in general and the other covering its CEO’s business past and ambitions. So, yeah, that’s been the big thing this week.

That might be the big centerpiece story, but there are always more things going on in the beta sphere. Heck, a lot of them feel pretty meaty on their own. Check this out:

Kritika Online is selling founder packs and will kick off its first closed beta on May 24th. I had a chance to play it on the show floor at PAX East and quite liked it, for whatever that’s worth.
Your character name will be tied to your account name in Crowfall, so let this be a warning to you: If you act like a jerk, people can track you down. Eventually. Probably.
Some leaks about the next Guild Wars 2 expansion have taken place, and they hint at new maps and new specializations. They might be legitimate or elaborate hoaxes, but we’ll know more in the near future (we hope).
The next Legends of Aria test has been delayed until May 12th, with a stream on May 8th showing off elements of the next test. So you’ll have to wait a bit longer to speculate about the Knight.
Albion Online has retooled its Hellgate PvP/PvE maps as part of its preparation for launch. Since they’re meant to be open PvP arenas with lots of roaming monsters, that’s a rather in-depth balancing act.
Last on the list, Darkfall: Rise of Agon (one of the two revival/reboot projects for the original Darkfall) is launching out of beta today. Let’s see how that one goes over.

That’s it! Oh, except for all of the stuff on the list below. So that’s it for everything not on the list. Also, some of the stuff on the list. Look, just check out the list below and let us know if something slipped into a new test phase while we weren’t looking, all right?

Albion Online retools combination PvP PvE Hellgate maps

May 2, 2017 Bree Royce Leave a comment

As part of Albion Online’s pre-beta overhaul, developer Sandbox Interactive is retooling the game’s existing Hellgates. No, not that Hellgate. In Albion, Hellgates are basically free-for-all PvP zones with seriously badass monsters. PvP inside the gates is unfettered and comes without reputation loss, but the baddies and their extreme loot make it worth the effort.

“While in general Hellgates have been well-received and they are a great source for intense PvP fights, we feel that we can make them even better,” Sandbox explains. “The main issues Hellgates currently have are related to teams dodging fights or pulling mobs to gain an unfair advantage in fights.”

The studio aims to incentivize play inside the gates with a newly designed map, three difficulty levels, and the elimination of mob interference in PvP encounters. But there’s still plenty of reason to PvE inside these special maps:

Make My MMO: Star Citizen’s roadmap, Elite Dangerous’ Commanders, and Starfighter’s successful Kickstarter (April 15, 2017)

April 15, 2017 Bree Royce One comment

This week in MMO crowdfunding, it’s been a battle of the space MMOs.

Elite: Dangerous rolled out its Commanders 2.3 update, introducing what our own Justin dubbed “sitting in cockpits” — you won’t be walking in stations per se, but you will at least be able to roll up impressively detailed avatars and multi-crew your spaceships.
Late last night, Star Citizen published its 2017 development roadmap, suggesting that 3.0 will arrive this summer, though it’ll be less ambitious in scope than originally planned, as some of its features will be pushed to later in the year.
And congrats are due to Starfighter Inc., which pulled off a big Kickstarter win earlier this afternoon and takes home over $170,000.

Meanwhile, Ashes of Creation posted some gorgeous new concept art, Dual Universe posted its latest newsletter and video dev diary with alpha footage, Crowfall canceled its weekend playtest but made headway on expanding gender for its classes, Valiance Online showed off its special effects, and Kickstarted Planet Nomads geared up for early access next week.

Read on for more on what’s up with MMO crowdfunding over the last week and the regular roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’ve got our eye on.

Massively OP’s spring and Easter MMORPG event roundup

April 14, 2017 Bree Royce 10 comments

Bunnies and eggs! Flowers and grass! Lots and lots of chocolate as we hoard every Cadbury thing we can find! (Or maybe that’s just me?) Yep, Easter is this weekend, making it a convenient time for MMOs to shower us in stuff to keep us indoors and playing instead of outside marveling in the end of winter. We’ve collected a few of those events down below!

Albion Online infographic reveals a massacre of rabbits

April 12, 2017 Justin Olivetti 4 comments

Just in time for the Easter weekend is news of a horrific and widespread slaughter of innocent little bunny rabbits in Albion Online.

This comes to us courtesy of a new infographic showing various stats from the game’s semi-recent Galahad update. Since March 13th, over 850,000 rabbits have been killed in the MMO, effectively putting an end to the holiday and crushing children’s hopes of a full candy basket on Sunday.

There is a wee bit more to the infographic than just hare-raising mortality figures, of course. 212,815 players in the alpha have wracked up an impressive 2.8M hours played since the patch went live on March 13th. You can check out the rest of the stats after the break!

One Shots: Eight-bit vista

April 9, 2017 Justin Olivetti 47 comments

One of my favorite MMO April Fools of all time is Guild Wars 2’s playable Super Adventure Box. It’s so brilliantly designed and executed that it goes far beyond mere joke territory and became an institution. A fun game-within-a-game.

Reader Little Bugbear took advantage of an initial foray into SAB to take what I consider to be a very arresting picture. It’s almost a silhouette of a character lounging against an 8-bit skybox. “Sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and enjoy a nice day of gaming,” Little Bugbear said.

Before we get into the rest of this week’s lineup, I want to share the news that we’ve made some further improvements to our comment system that should allow you to share your screenshots in bigger and bolder glory, especially when you post one at a time!

Make My MMO: Ship of Heroes’ canceled Kickstarter, Edengrad’s early access (April 8, 2017)

April 8, 2017 Bree Royce 2 comments

This week in MMO crowdfunding, City of Heroes-inspired superhero MMORPG Ship of Heroes launched its Kickstarter, seeking $400,000. But three days later, Heroic Games canceled the crowdfunding attempt, saying it believed it “went to Kickstarter too early.” The new plan is to return to development, raise awareness, take donations through the website, and retool development based on its current level of funding, meaning a potentially smaller but earlier game.

In happier news, congrats are due to post-apoc sandbox Edengrad, which successfully launched into early access. Edengrad was funded last year for over $50,000 US thanks to Kickstarter backers.

Meanwhile, Dual Universe reached another stretch goal, Worlds Adrift launched its 6.0 update, Grim Dawn detailed the Necromancer class coming in its first expansion, Elite: Dangerous dropped its cash shop prices permanently, Starfighter Inc. continues to inch its way toward its Kickstarter end, and Shroud of the Avatar is in the midst of another free trial period.

Read on for more on what’s up with MMO crowdfunding over the last week and the regular roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’ve got our eye on.

Betawatch: Secret World Legends is a very different game, probably (April 7, 2017)

April 7, 2017 Eliot Lefebvre 3 comments

If you were hoping that Secret World Legends was essentially just The Secret World, well, you were wrong. You were told that you were wrong when it was announced, but the first round of leaks have been coming out of the beta, and they paint a very different picture of the game. Of course, it’s still early enough in testing that fans are cautioned not to see anything therein as final, so… take all of that with a grain of salt, naturally.

And yes, there is other beta news! That’s not a secret. It’s a known fact.

Crowfall is offering players the option to customize skill loadouts. That’s new and it’s a real thing, unlike the development team’s recent round of answers for things which do not currently exist.
The Morrowind expansion for The Elder Scrolls Online has a closed beta on the game’s test servers. Essentially, you can only be invited to test the expansion content, but everyone gets to test the patch itself. It’s a bit odd.
If you want some drops in Albion Online, you’re going to need to make them yourself. Yes, there are plans for a system to ensure that even drops are made by players. Also a bit odd, but sort of cool.
There are two factions in Escape from Tarkov, but there’s also a third… well, not a faction, per se, but scavengers can run around and screw things up for everyone regardless of affiliation.
The latest update for Worlds Adrift doesn’t just make the game flow better, it makes it taste better. Metaphorically, anyhow. If you lick the part of your hard drive where the game is stored, you… actually, just don’t do that. Don’t even think about that.
Last but not least, Edengrad has launched into Early Access. That’s not odd at all! Just straightforward.

You know what comes next: I mention that there’s a list of games in testing below, I implore you to let us know if something jumped test phases, I sit and cry with four pounds of crispy bacon. I don’t actually eat the bacon, I just cry next to it. Also, I’m hoping by this point you’ve stopped reading. The best secrets are out in plain sight.

MMORPG
News

Albion Online has huge plans for its player-run economy, including all-crafted drops

April 5, 2017 Bree Royce 6 comments

Albion Online isn’t letting up on the updates in the window of time from now to July when it launches for real, nope. Today, the studio’s put out its plan for some of the big changes it’s working on. Economy is first up on the list as Sandbox Interactive hopes to make almost all of the gear in the game player-made — even the drops. You know how Trove’s mob drops are actually player-crafted items? So too will it be in Albion once the team has its way.

“The way this works is that all items that can drop from mobs need to be supplied to an NPC black market first. The black market in turn creates demand based on mobs being killed. If the black market’s demand is not met for certain items, prices will increase, until a player is willing to sell the requested item to the NPC. Items sold to the NPC will then enter the drop pool, i.e. mobs can drop them based on the usual loot tables. However, the black market NPC is somewhat corrupt, and some items sold to him will be ‘lost’, hence creating a nice item sink which will be very important at the lower tiers. If we can make it work, you’ll even be able to see which player originally crafted the item that just dropped from the mob you killed!”

Make My MMO: Star Citizen’s subber promo, Planet Nomads’ early access, Project Gorgon’s bards (March 25, 2017)

March 25, 2017 Bree Royce 9 comments

This week in MMO crowdfunding, Star Citizen capped off a week of DirectX revelations and mega map explanations with a round of celebrations — for its fifth year of subscriptions. Folks who join the game’s dev subber program pick up a magazine, discounts, and extra test access; sub before April 17th while the promo is live, you get vending machine flair for your hangar. At least you’ll have cold beverages while you wait for the game, right? (Thanks, Cotic!)

Elsewhere in space MMOs, congrats are due to Planet Nomads, which was Kickstarted last year and is now plotting an early access launch for April 18th.

And in epic news for fans of the best video game class of all time, Project Gorgon rolled out the bard support skills for testing this week. Don’t think you’re just going to pick up a lute and start strumming, either: “As you advance in Bard skill, you will also need to improve other skills, including performance, vocabulary, and poetry appreciation.” Bring your thesaurus!

Meanwhile, ECO patched in some major upgrades to its economy, Starfighter is nearing half its goal with 20 days remaining (thanks Crow!), Ever, Jane’s beta picked up horseback riding features, Camelot Unchained danced with its own bot army, City of Titans previewed its core archetypes, SOTA nabbed a new newsletter layout, and The Exiled’s early access began its second season.

Read on for more on what’s up with MMO crowdfunding over the last week and the regular roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’ve got our eye on.

Albion Online’s new gathering gear helps you get the goods

March 25, 2017 Justin Olivetti 5 comments

25Have you ever wondered how strange it was that your fantasy MMO character ends up doing grunt work like farming, mining, or baking apple pecan pies with delicate flaky crusts in your battle armor? That won’t be the case in Albion Online, just in case you were wondering.

With the new Galahad update, gatherers now have their own specialty outfits that will assist the player in the task at hand. By donning one of these gatherer outfits, players can not only look the part but also gain access to special skills to assist in harvesting mats from the game world.

Each of the five gathering professions have several tiers of these outfits to pursue, with the higher offering an increased yield to mats gained. The backpack slot, which is part of each four-piece set, will allow players to carry far more resources than they would be able to otherwise. The only question is, does wearing one of these outfits automatically put a big target on your head for merciless PvPers?

Source: Albion Online

Comment

You’ll need to put in about 20 hours in Albion Online to become competitive in PvP

March 17, 2017 Justin Olivetti 34 comments

As Albion Online barrels toward a summer release, the crew took to Reddit yesterday for a marathon AMA session to tackle any pressing community questions.

Asked how much work an average player will need to put in before being of any use in PvP, the team responded, “A general principle of Albion Online — as a game with a strong PvP focus — is that the combat power curves for gear and character progress are very flat […] When you start out a new character, you could expect at least 10 to 20 hours of gameplay before you could be considered competitive in PvP.”

What about super-experienced and -geared players taking over the game’s landscape and making it miserable for everyone else? “Of course, well-organized guilds will always have an advantage over more casual players – it would be weird if that was not the case. However, it is extremely unlikely — and has never happened in any of our tests, two of which lasted around six months — that a single faction will dominate the world.”

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