mythology

Secret World Legends adding new South Africa and faction rank missions soon

31 comments
The anniversary event has kept Secret World Legends players’ attention pretty rapt for the past month, but that distraction ending tomorrow. What will fans do then? Well they won’t get auxiliary weapons (bummer), but they will get to look forward to new missions coming soon. Funcom revealed that these free mission additions will not all be in South Africa but spread out: One will be in the newest zone while the other three will be new faction ranking ones. (Sorry folks, still no auxiliary weapons in the forecast.)

In South Africa, the new one with its accompanying achievement Land of the Dawn will be an action mission in South Africa. Titled Public Enemy Number One, it focuses on that mysterious assailant that hounds you in the Morninglight compound. The faction ranking missions bring Into Darkness, Venetian Missle Crisis, and Rogue Agent! back, all redesigned for SWL with scaling difficulties. Unlocking at level 50, these will increase faction ranks from level 11 through 13 and include rewards of faction uniforms, a faction specific agent, an additional agent slot, and faction-specific cosmetics. It doesn’t stop there: New legends to collect and new achievements to obtain are also included.

Source: Official site

Comment

Camelot Unchained nears beta as its crash rate drops to ‘acceptable’ levels

20 comments

“From what we’ve seen so far, we’re in really good shape.”

Mark Jacobs hasn’t given us a firm start date for Camelot Unchained’s Beta 1 yet, but from the sound of his recent livestream, it’s getting really close.

The crash rate for Camelot Unchained has dipped into the “acceptable” range for a beta test, with the average player being able to stay in game for up to four hours without a crash. The team expects that this rate will improve even further for Beta 1, especially as it is trying to “break the build” by stressing the server and testing its capabilities.

Get the full report after the break, with the livestream starting at the 7-minute mark and the talk from Mark Jacobs at 16:40.

Read more

Defiance 2050 performs better than its predecessor but hasn’t won the community over

33 comments

With last week’s launch of the revamped and rebooted Defiance 2050, Trion Worlds was betting on players flocking back to the sci-fi MMO shooter now that it’s seen improvements and adopted a free-to-play model. However, it doesn’t seem as though the community is giving its approval for the latest version of this game, at least according to Steam, where Defiance 2050 is weathering “mostly negative” reviews.

One common complaint is that the relaunched MMO isn’t really that much different or better than the old game — yet players have to start over from scratch (in an eerily similar situation to last year’s Secret World Legends reboot). Other frequent criticisms include the proliferation of lockboxes, server instability, old bugs that haven’t been fixed, and not enough recognition or extras for players coming from the original game.

Site Kitguru ran Defiance 2050 through a series of benchmarks and compared it to the original game, stating that it “improves upon its predecessor with a more detailed experience.” It was also noted that there was a choppier frame rate on larger resoutions, better AI, and no apparent reason for the reboot on PC.

Source: Steam, Kitguru

Comment

The Daily Grind: What exactly defines an ‘indie’ MMORPG studio?

38 comments

Earlier this week, I happened to see a mainstream website refer to ArtCraft as an indie studio, and it jolted me. ArtCraft, as anybody reading MOP knows, is working on Crowfall, which at least in my estimation is a high-quality, graphics-intensive MMORPG from hardcore MMORPG veterans who’ve been in the business as long as anyone alive. The game has raised at least $12M or maybe $15M, at least counting up what we know about.

When I think of indie studios, I think of the tiny outfits working on games like Project Gorgon, Ever, Jane, and Ascent the Space Game. But of course Crowfall is also an indie, right? It’s not running a $500M budget; it’s not ensconced under a cozy AAA publisher umbrella. It crowdfunds.

Then again, aside from the budget/wealth, its profile looks like a bit like Epic Games’ – it even has an engine to vend now. So is it really just about money? Is Star Citizen, with its multiple studios and AAA budget, an indie because of crowdfunding? Camelot Unchained studio CSE has multiple studios – does that factor in?

I’m curious what you folks think. What exactly defines an indie MMO studio? What characteristics must an indie studio have or not have?

Read more

The Stream Team: Hot stuff in Secret World Legends

Leave a comment
Massively OP’s MJ is so sick of the sun and heat! But she has 11 side missions and four investigation missions to complete before moving on to… the next part of the desert. Can she finally whip through these and get to the spookiness of Transylvania? Tune in live at 9:00 p.m. to see if MJ melts.

What: Secret World Legends
Who: MJ Guthrie
When: 9:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday, July 12th, 2018

Read more

Battle Bards Episode 124: Old MMOs, new music

Leave a comment

It’s a catch-all, catch-up episode for the Battle Bards as they dig through new soundtrack releases from MMORPGs that they’ve covered in the past! You may be prepared for an eclectic and enjoyable mix of music — but there is no way that you can steel yourself for the raw and heartfelt confessions that take place on this show.

Battle Bards is a bi-weekly podcast that alternates between examining a single MMO’s soundtrack and exploring music tracks revolving around a theme. MOP’s Justin co-hosts with bloggers Steff and Syl. The cast is available on iTunes, Google Play, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, and Player.FM.

Listen to Episode 124: Old MMOs, new music (or download it) now:

Read more

Dark Age of Camelot answers player questions about damage reduction and defensive actions

One comment

When a game has been running as long as Dark Age of Camelot has, it stands to reason that the players remaining are going to be deeply invested in the game and quite familiar with its mechanics. So if you approach DAOC’s most recent grab bag, understand that you will be entering a zone in which deep and granular questions are asked and answered.

Among the community queries this past week include the issue of whether or not Kertom still drops black weapon enamel (he does, whew), the stacking proc effect of a Howling Predator Vest (why would you want your vest to howl?), and the order in which defensive actions resolve in the game.

By far, the longest answer revolved around players’ Base AF and how that affects damage reduction. “Armor quality affects both the chance that your armor will absorb the blow at all and if that roll is successful, how much damage will be mitigated,” the devs said. “Armor condition also affects how much damage is mitigated.”

Source: Dark Age of Camelot

Comment

Massively OP Podcast Episode 177: ArenaNet A-bomb

49 comments

On this week’s show, Bree and Justin cleans up after Guild Wars 2’s PR disaster, chew over the survivability of Shroud of the Avatar, and commiserate about Camelot Unchained’s delay. It’s not all downer news — there’s some really great stuff happening in the MMO industry, and that makes an appearance on this extra-long episode!

Special note: If you want to skip the ArenaNet discussion for the rest of the news, go to the 50-minute mark (yeah, we talk about it a lot!). Also, please note that this was recorded before the Polygon article that came out Monday night, so it’s missing some the additional commentary on Mike O’Brien’s second formal statement.

It’s the Massively OP Podcast, an action-packed hour of news, tales, opinions, and gamer emails! And remember, if you’d like to send in your own letter to the show, use the “Tips” button in the top-right corner of the site to do so.

Listen to the show right now:

Read more

The Stream team: Aiming for Angry Feet in Secret World Legends

Leave a comment
The game may be Secret World Legends now, but it was The Secret World that started it all. And today is the original game’s sixth birthday so Massively OP’s MJ is going to celebrate. The anniversary festivities are still in full swing in SWL, but there are aspects she hasn’t been able to participate in — until now. After killing countless Talos golems MJ finally has a shard to try for the Angry Feet achievement. The only problem is that her shard is pretty common, and other instances are also placing theirs at the same time. Can she do it? Tune in live at 2:00 p.m.to cheer her on in this seemingly impossible task.

What: Secret World Legends
Who: MJ Guthrie
When: 2:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2018

Read more

Secret World Legends community mod allows players to make their own in-game missions

7 comments
No one likes a content lull in a game, but Secret World Legends players don’t have to take it lying down. They don’t actually have to take it at all, in fact, because there’s a community modification to allow players to create their own missions and play those made by others. Admittedly, it’s not going to allow you to create powerful new gear as rewards for those missions, but if you’re in the midst of a content lull that’s probably not your primary concern.

You can check out a trailer and a sample of a mission in action just below, if you’re interested in seeing how the mod works out in practice. Yes, it’s a bit of a stopgap solution for content lulls and doesn’t wholly address the main issue, but it means you can have all sorts of new mysteries to uncover… and other mysteries to create yourself. Isn’t that interesting enough on its own?

Read more

Camelot Unchained has briefly delayed its 4th of July beta launch because ‘the client crash rate is too damn high’

65 comments

Camelot Unchained has postponed its planned 4th of July beta launch in what Mark Jacobs is characterizing as a “short” delay.

“It’s not going to be a year delay or a three-month delay,” he told viewers on stream, reassuring them that he’s expecting it to be a matter of merely days or weeks. [Update: After the stream, Jacobs told Massively OP that he expects a clearer picture of how long the delay will be by Thursday.]

Over the weekend, studio reps said it was down to a list of 40 bugs it’s still crunching on; the company is asking existing backers to come help test this week. “The client crash rate is TOO DAMN HIGH!” is the mantra on today’s stream.

Longtime MMORPG fans will know that this delay follows several years of pre-beta testing. Last winter, City State Entertainment announced it had received a big cash investment and put the July 4th date on Camelot Unchained’s beta one. At the time, the beta was already three years late, as the studio struggled to find programmers, completely refactored large chunks of its ability system, and ultimately opened up a second studio in Seattle in order to make its RvR MMO vision a reality.

Read more

The MOP Up: EverQuest II’s scorched sky policy (July 1, 2018)

Leave a comment

The MMO industry moves along at the speed of information, and sometimes we’re deluged with so much news here at Massively Overpowered that some of it gets backlogged. That’s why there’s The MOP Up: a weekly compilation of smaller MMO stories and videos that you won’t want to miss. Seen any good MMO news? Hit us up through our tips line!

Maybe you’ll discover a new game in this space — or be reminded of an old favorite! This week we have stories and videos from Elsword, Crossout, ARK Park, EverQuest II, Dark and Light, Conan Exiles, Kritika Online, Lineage 2 Revolution, Old School RuneScape, Titan Quest, MU Origin, World of Tanks Mercenaries, SMITE, and RuneScape, all waiting for you after the break!

Read more

Camelot Unchained’s 4th of July beta launch prospects are still ‘too close to call’

39 comments

We’ve updated the end of this article with some words from Mark Jacobs.

Last winter, City State Entertainment announced it’d received a big cash investment and put a date on Camelot Unchained’s beta one: July 4th, 2018. At the time, the beta was already three years late, as the studio struggled to find programmers, completely refactored large chunks of its ability system, and ultimately opened up a second studio in Seattle, and I think it’s fair to say that patience has thinned out along the way.

But as we’ve been reporting for the last few weeks, while the team was originally on schedule, GDPR compliance requirements created a huge setback for the beta as key employees worked on dealing with bureaucracy instead of fixing mission-critical bugs. Consequently, as CSE’s Mark Jacobs notes in yesterday’s stream, whether or not the beta actually launches Wednesday is still “too close to call.”

Jacobs tells fans that the studio is down to a list of 40 bugs it’s still crunching on – yes, they’re crunching this weekend – and they’ll be conducting large-scale testing all weekend, which will determine whether beta one is happening on time. (The next mini-test begins right as this post goes live, in fact.)

Read more

1 2 3 … 99