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Gree Event Returns To SWTOR

May 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment

ilum2May 21 to 28 sees  the Relics of the Gree event return to SWTOR for those after some different gear. I’m very tempted to do the reputation grind with the Gree for the Blue Sphere Transport Enclosure Vehicle which is one of the cooler vehicles I’ve seen in-game.

For those who have forgotten the background story behind the event:

An ancient and powerful Gree starship has suddenly appeared and touched down in the midst of the frozen battlegrounds of the planet Ilum. Launched by the Gree’s ancestors long ago to explore and study the furthest reaches of the galaxy, the fully-automated vessel has been hyper-jumping from one star system to the next for uncounted centuries, examining the planets it discovers and analyzing how their native species respond to various stimuli, from mild atmospheric alterations to direct attacks.

For the modern Gree, the starship has come to be known as ‘Gray Secant,’ and carries an almost religious significance. Having long forgotten the techniques and intentions of their ancient predecessors, the Gree can only look back on their ancestors’ works with deeply-felt reverence and do their best to keep them functional. The reappearance of this unfathomably sophisticated starship is incredibly exciting for the Gree, and they want to do anything they can to further Gray Secant’s now-mythic purpose. Since the starship seems to have taken an interest in Ilum’s battles between the Republic and the Empire, the Gree have reached out to exceptional individuals from both factions, offering lavish rewards for those who travel to Ilum’s battlegrounds to fight and provide data for the Secant’s grand mission of galactic analysis.

You can find out more about the event and the gear on offer by reading the announcement from BioWare.

Will you be giving it a go this time around?

Filed Under: Events, General News, SWTOR Tagged With:

SWTOR 2.1.0 Full Patch Notes

May 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

swtor-patch-incoming-banner

SWTOR Patch 2.1.0 is with us, and what a bundle of goodies it contains. And here are those goodies in full for you to read through. Enjoy:

 

Game Update 2.1: Customization

5/14/2013

Highlights

  • New Feature! The new Appearance Designer by AestheTech has been added to Dromund Kaas, Coruscant, and the Republic and Imperial Fleets. This kiosk will allow players to modify any feature of their physical appearance, except gender, including taking on a whole new Species. Players can also use the kiosk to access and unlock brand new character customization options. Subscribers get a substantial discount on all Appearance Designer changes.
  • New Feature! Dye Modules are now available via Artifice Crafting, some vendors, and the Cartel Market. They function similar to other item modifications. More details under Items and Economy.
  • New Feature! Collections provides a one–stop interface which is accessible from the Inventory Window or Cartel Market and tracks many items available from the Cartel Market, Packs (Cartel and Contraband alike), Cartel Reputation, and even Friends of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, Pre–order, Collectors Edition, live fan events and more. More details under General.
  • New Unlockable Species! Players of any Faction, Class, or gender can now play as the Cathar Species! Cathar can be purchased via the Cartel Market or directly through the Appearance Designer Kiosk on the Republic and Imperial Fleets and Capital Worlds.
  • Renames Available! Players now have the ability to purchase a Name Change for Character, Legacy, and Guild from the Cartel Market.

Cartel Market

General

      • All Cartel Market Toy items are now Bind on Use. Previously, some of these items did not bind to the player.

New Items

      • The Eradicator’s Mask is now available on the Cartel Market. Cost: 480 Cartel Coins
      • The Huttsbane’s Garments are now available on the Cartel Market. This collection of adaptive gear with no modifications is available to any Class at level 1. Cost: 900 Cartel Coins
      • The Cathar Species is now available for all Classes! Cost: 600 Cartel Coins
      • Escrow Credit Transfers are now available for Free–to–Play and Preferred Status Players. Package denominations are available for 50K, 150K, and 600K . Each Package is a consumable that will immediately transfer the Package’s set amount of credits from the existing Escrow Balance as listed in the Currency tab of the Inventory Window to the Inventory credit balance. This transfer does not affect Inventory Credit Caps. Therefore, newly acquired credits will go into the Escrow Balance as normal. For example, if the player has a Credit Cap is 250,000 / The player has 100,000 in their Inventory. The player purchases a 600K escrow package bringing their Inventory credit total to 700,000. Until the credits in the player’s Inventory drop below 250,000 (the Credit Cap), the newly acquired credits will be funneled into Escrow. Cost:
        • Small Package – 40 Cartel Coins
        • Medium Package – 80 Cartel Coins
        • Large Package – 240 Cartel Coins
      • Players are now able to purchase a Name Change from the Cartel Market. Cost:
        • Character – 1,000 Cartel Coins
        • Legacy – 1,000 Cartel Coins
        • Guild – 3,000 Cartel Coins
      • New Appearance Options are now available in the Cartel Market. Cost:
        • Human Hairstyles 1 – 240 Cartel Coins
        • Human Hair Colors 1 – 180 Cartel Coins
        • Mirialan Tattoos 1 – 90 Cartel Coins
        • Chiss Customizations 1 – 240 Cartel Coins
        • Human White Eyes – 100 Cartel Coins

New Discounts

Permanent Reductions
        • The Carbonite Chamber is now permanently discounted. Cost: 480 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Display Titles is now permanently discounted. Cost: 90 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Display Titles (Account) is now permanently discounted. Cost: 150 Cartel Coins
        • The Gamorrean Axe is now permanently discounted. Cost: 300 Cartel Coins
        • The Major Experience Boost consumable is now permanently discounted. Cost: 90 Cartel Coins
        • 5–Pack: Major Experience Boost consumables are now permanently discounted. Cost: 360 Cartel Coins
        • The Major Valor Boost consumable is now permanently discounted. Cost: 40 Cartel Coins
Temporary Reductions
        • Access Authorization: Section X is now discounted by 25%. Cost: 375 Cartel Coins
        • Access Authorization: Section X (Account) is now discounted by 10%. Cost: 900 Cartel Coins
        • The Fleet Pass (Single Use) consumable is now discounted by 33%. Cost: 60 Cartel Coins
        • The Gamorrean Axe is now discounted by 25%. Cost: 225 Cartel Coins
        • The Major Experience Boost consumable is now discounted by 33%. Cost: 60 Cartel Coins
        • 5–Pack: Major Experience Boost consumables are now discounted by 20%. Cost: 288 Cartel Coins
        • The Major Valor Boost consumable is now discounted by 25%. Cost: 30 Cartel Coins
        • The Covert Pilot Suit is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 720 Cartel Coins
        • Unlock: Guild Bank Access is now discounted by 25%. Cost: 450 Cartel Coins
        • Unlock: Guild Bank Access (Account) is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 1080 Cartel Coins
        • Unlock: Galactic Trade Network Sale Slots are now discounted by 20%. Cost: 100 Cartel Coins
        • Unlock: Galactic Trade Network Sale Slots (Account) are now discounted by 20%. Cost: 224 Cartel Coins
        • Unlock: Additional Quickbar is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 200 Cartel Coins
        • Unlock: Additional Quickbar (Account) is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 432 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Hide Head Slot is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 280 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Hide Head Slot (Account) is now discounted by 20%. Cost: 620 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Display Legacy Name and Titles is now discounted by 50%. Cost: 50 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Display Legacy Name and Titles (Account) is now discounted by 50%. Cost: 100 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Unify Colors is now discounted by 40%. Cost: 210 Cartel Coins
        • Customization Control: Unify Colors (Account) is now discounted by 40%. Cost: 465 Cartel Coins
        • Orange–Yellow Crystals are now discounted by 33%. Cost: 600 Cartel Coins
        • All Level 15 Chestpieces are now discounted by 33%. Cost: 100 Cartel Coins

Bug Fixes

    • Silver–blue crystals sold on the Cartel Market now have appropriate translations in French and German.
    • Cartel Market Species Unlocks will now properly apply to accounts who have not yet unlocked their Legacy.
    • The Life Day Holo–Tree now displays the correct icon on the player’s status bar when in use.
    • The Music Therapy Probe now correctly affects group members.

General

  • New Unlockable Species! Players of any Faction, Class, or gender can now play as the Cathar Species! Cathar can be purchased via the Cartel Market or directly through the Appearance Designer Kiosk on the Republic and Imperial Fleets and Capital Worlds.
  • New Feature! The new Appearance Designer by AestheTech has been added to Dromund Kaas, Coruscant, and the Republic and Imperial Fleets. This kiosk will allow players to modify any feature of their physical appearance except gender, including taking on a whole new Species!
  • New Character Customization options are now available! Players who wish to create a new character using a newly added customization will first need to purchase and unlock the Appearance Option on an existing character via the Cartel Market or Appearance Designer Kiosk.
  • New Feature Collections is a new feature which provides a one–stop interface accessible from the Inventory Window or Cartel Market:
    • Collections will track most items available from the Cartel Market, Packs (Cartel, Contraband, and beyond!), Cartel Reputation, and even Friends of Star Wars: The Old Republic, Pre–order, Collectors Edition, live fan events and more.
    • Rather than being limited to one character or Legacy, items tracked with Collections share across the entire account – all characters, all servers.
    • Once an item or gear set has been acquired on a single character, the player can use Cartel Coins to unlock that item or gear set for all characters on the account, with the exception of level 15, 31, and 43 Adaptable gear and Cartel Reputation items.
  • Decreased the instance population cap on Imperial and Republic Fleet Stations as well as several planets.
  • Removed the 13th Scar Character Customization Option for Female Rattataki Sith Inquisitors, as it was identical to Scar 12.

Classes and Combat

General

      • Players who are killed or rooted while using dive–based abilities (such as Scamper or Covered Escape) will no longer become indefinitely stuck in place.

Smuggler

    • The tooltip for Illegal Mods now properly indicates the Accuracy boost in the German version.

Crew Skills

General

      • Adjusted level 400+ mission rewards to provide Standard Quality crafting materials at a rate more comparable with lower level missions.
      • Failed Crew Skill missions will no longer return a blank Mission Reward Window in some circumstances.

Crafting Skills

General
        • Successful Reverse Engineering attempts will now grant the resulting Schematic and will no longer display the error “Insufficient Skill Level” if the Schematic is above the player’s current Crafting skill level.
Armormech
        • Reduced crafting material cost for level 401+ Premium Quality Schematics to be more comparable with lower level Schematic requirements.
Artifice
        • Players with Artifice can now craft Dye Modules.
Biochem
        • Adjusted all level 401+ Schematics to better balance the use of Artificial Microbe, Metabolic, Enhancement Agent, and Biological Compounding Chemical crafting materials.
        • Viral Residue is now a required material for some Biochem Schematics.
Cybertech
        • Reduced crafting material cost for level 401+ Premium Quality earpieces to be more comparable with lower level Schematic requirements.
Synthweaving
        • Reduced crafting material cost for level 401+ Premium Quality Schematics to be more comparable with lower level Schematic requirements.

Gathering Skills

Archaeology
        • Removed Perfect Corbonic Crystals as a mission reward, and the vendor value has been increased for the crystals currently in distribution.
Scavenging
        • Removed Hollinium as a mission reward, and the vendor value has been increased for the Hollinium currently in distribution.
Slicing
      • Slicing missions will now correctly populate the level 25–32 mission level drop down when reaching skill level 125.
      • Increased the number of Bio–Mechanical Interface Chips and Thermal Regulators provided as rewards for level 400+ Slicing missions.

Flashpoints and Operations

Flashpoints

Cademimu
        • Players will now be able to free group members who are affected by General Ortol’s Magnetic Shackles in Hard Mode.

Operations

    • Players below level 50 are no longer able to enter Operations.

Galactic Solutions Industries

Seeker Droid

    • Players are now able to obtain all parts for the GSI HMF–03 Exploiter, GSI EMP–02 Explorer and GSI PMP–06 Pleasure Speeder vehicles.

Items and Economy

General

      • New Feature! Dye Modules are now available via Artifice, some vendors, and the Cartel Market. They function similar to other item modifications:
        • It is highly recommended that all colors be previewed before the Dye Modules are applied to any piece of gear.
        • To add Dye to a piece of gear, simply open the Item Modification Window and place the Module into the new Dye Module slot.
        • Once slotted in gear, Dye Modules cannot be recovered, and removing a Dye Module will destroy it.
        • Gear that has been slotted with Dye Modules will still update when using the “Unify to Chest Color Theme” option, so only one Module (slotted into the chestpiece) is needed to maintain consistent coloration for an entire set of gear.
      • The Exceptional Powered Exoskeleton Body Armor and Environmental Asylum Body Armor now have the correct icon and appearance when equipped.
      • The Tionese Duranium Faceguard and the Prototype Balmorran Duranium Faceguard will now display properly when equipped.

Vendors

    • The Collector’s Edition and Security Key Vendors now sell Dye Modules.
    • Players can now obtain Dye Module Schematics from Galactic Reputation Vendors.

Legacy

General

      • The description for the Legacy Global Convenience Unlock “Improved Priority Transport: Personal Starship” have been updated to better reflect their effect:
        • Level I and Level II Unlocks now state that they reduce the cooldown on Priority Transport: Personal Starship by 8 hours each to a minimum of 1 hour.
        • Level III Unlock now states that it will reduce the cooldown on Priority Transport: Personal Starship by 7 hours to a minimum of 1 hour.
      • Legacy unlocks that are purchased using Credits will now provide a confirmation window.
      • The Legacy Global Ship Unlock “Galactic Market Kiosk” is now titled “Galactic Trade Network Terminal” and the description has been updated.

Achievements

    • Players will now be properly granted PvP Achievements for Solo Kills, Killing Blows, Total Kills, Damage, and Healing.

Missions and NPCs

Missions

    • Players who are in a group will no longer be prevented from advancing missions which require the use of their ship’s holoterminal.

PvP

Warzones

General
        • Augments are no longer taken into account when calculating bolster.
Voidstar
      • Players will no longer be able to use movement speed increasing abilities to get over the shield wall in the Cargo (final) room.

UI

  • Added new tutorials for Collections and Dye Modules.
  • The tutorial indicator will now sort above some UI windows when a tutorial is available.
  • Subscribers will now see proper Unlocked indicators at Character Creation for Species that they have access to.
  • Whispers sent to an offline character will no longer be forwarded to an online character on the same account.
  • Companions with an active Customization Kit will now display properly in the Preview Window.
  • A background image has been added to the Character Sheet, Legacy Family Tree, and Preview Window.
  • Hovering over the Guilds button will now display the correct text.
  • Dark Side Corruption will now display properly in the Preview Window.

 

Filed Under: General News, Patch Notes, SWTOR Tagged With:

SWTOR Server Maintenance 14th May: Game Update 2.1.0.

May 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

swtor-server-down

A five hour maintenance tomorrow night for SWTOR services, but it’s for a hell of a good reason – Game Update 2.1.0 goes live. Here’s the local time conversions for your convenience:

AEST: 8pm-1am

AWST: 6pm-11pm

NZST: 10pm-3am

The BioWare blurb:

On Tuesday May 14th, all game servers, SWTOR.com, and the launcher will be unavailable as we perform scheduled maintenance. Game Update 2.1.0 will be implemented during this downtime. Details are as follows:

Date: Tuesday May 14th, 2013
Duration: 5 hours
Time: 3AM PDT (10AM UTC) to 8AM PDT (3PM UTC)

Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

Filed Under: General News, Maintenance and Downtime, SWTOR Tagged With:

My First Week in Neverwinter Online.

May 8, 2013 by 5 Comments

cleric1a I came to Neverwinter with no preconceptions, or indeed any idea, as to what the game would be like. All I knew about the forgotten realms came from reading a handful of books more than a decade ago. So what drew me into this game?

Initially it was definitely the fact that it is free to play. Entirely free to play. You do not have to spend a cent of your hard earned money to play this game. In games like SWTOR, players have to shell out Cartel Coins to run Flashpoints and the like, or they can pay a subscription. So far in Neverwinter I am level 29 and I have run multiple dungeons, skirmishes and foundry missions all for the low, low price of $0.

Buying Zen will certainly help you in this game – it will make profession levelling much, much easier and convenient and there are debates on the official forums and within the community about the effect it will have on end game PvP as the game ages. Neverwinter offers us the advantage of being able to buy Zen with in-game currency (astral diamonds), while at this stage the pricing is inflated it will (hopefully) begin to even out and settle into a manageable conversion rate as the game progresses. Though I have not seen specific proof of this I believe Zen is also hard capped on how much can be charged for it in regards to in-game currency.

So if F2P is what drew me into the game, what is it that is keeping me here? I can sum it up in one word: Foundry. The Foundry is an amazing resource, by which players can create their own content. This ranges from simple kill ‘X things’ quests to elaborately designed multi-stage group questing.

When I first started playing I was enjoying the game, though I didn’t feel that it would hold me for very long. The main quest line is rather linear and I couldn’t see where the replay value was and then I found it in the Foundry. The first quest I did was I am Slayer and I was hooked. I still primarily play the main quests but when I get a little tired of them I switch to the foundry for an added level of enjoyment.

If like me you have ever thought about looking in to what it takes to design a game, you will love the Foundry. It enables players to create intricate and rewarding content and publish it themselves. I have spent a little bit of time learning its systems and I have to say it is not overly complicated. It may take the novice (such as myself) time to come to terms with the initial learning curve but once you have the foundations it is really quite simple to use.

There are plenty of gameplay reviews of the game so I won’t go into that here. I will conclude with a recommendation for everyone to have a look at the game, I am confident that like me you will be pleasantly surprised.

 

Filed Under: General News, Neverwinter, Other Games Tagged With:

SWTOR Server Maintenance 7th May: It’s A Quickie!

May 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment

swtor-server-down

A quick, non-patch maintenance this week. Time conversions:

AEST: 6pm-7pm

AWST: 4pm-5pm

NZST: 8pm-9pm

And don’t forget, an hour is a perfect time to catch our latest podcast.

The BioWare blurb:

On Tuesday, May 7th we will be restarting all game servers to maintain and improve stability. After maintenance, there will not be a new patch to download. Details are as follows:

Date: Tuesday, May 7th
Duration: 1 hour
Time: 12AM PDT (7AM GMT) – 1AM PDT (8AM GMT)

Thank you for your patience as we maintain service for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

Filed Under: General News, Servers, SWTOR

Flash Point 56: Barbed Wire Reserve With Dial-Up

May 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

flashpoint-podcastWe cover some wider ground this week although there’s a very healthy slice of SWTOR in there as always.

Points of discussion:

SWTOR
- Game Update 2.1
- Customisation
- 2.1 communication via ‘fansites’
- breezing through Flash Points
- the grinding debate

Other
- Camelot Unchained
- the evergreen ‘Is WoW declining’ argument
- Neverwinter
- Kristy revisits Rift
- Shroud of the Avatar
- Marvel Heroes
- World of Tanks 8.5 Patch
- Dr Who has jumped the shark
- Iron Man 3
- next Star Trek movie

Please send us a question for discussion on the next episode!

- Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Twitter account, Simon’s Twitter account and Kristy’s Twitter account.

Please review or rate the podcast on iTunes if you can – it makes a huge difference!

Listen via iTunes or right here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:31 — 25.9MB)

Filed Under: General News, Podcast Tagged With:

World of Tanks Patch 8.5: The Leopard 1 Is Here!

May 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment

wot-blitzkrieg-banner

Blitzkrieg is a regular column devoted to the very popular MMO World of Tanks. If you’ve got a topic you’d like our resident expert Matthew “Scope” Pearce to cover, drop him a line!

G’day readers. First of all I would like to apologise for my absence over these last couple of months – real life decided someone needed a good kick up the butt and the boot just happened to land on my ass. Moving house, another family member being placed in hospital in critical condition as well as full-time study has put a lot of pressure on myself and my family these last few months.

Real life aside, Patch 8.5 of World of Tanks saw the launch of the new German medium line which includes the tier 8 Indien-Pz the tier 9 Leopard PT A and finishing off with the amazing tier 10 Leopard 1.

World of Tanks Leopard 1

The Leopard 1 Isn’t she a beauty?

So why have I been looking forward to driving the Leopard 1 for so long? well the short answer would be that the tank was the first Modern era Main Battle Tank. The long answer will be an in-depth look at the strengths and weaknesses of the Leopard 1 during this article.

So how good is the Leopard 1?

I’m going to go through the three main areas of tank warfare and grade each area out of 10.

Firepower: 9/10

The Leopard 1 comes equipped with the German modified British L7A3 105mm, which has 268mm of penetration with 0.3 accuracy at 100m an aim time of 1.9 seconds 390 damage a hit with a rate of fire of 6.67 rounds a minute. This gives the Leopard 1 2601.3 DPM stock. Equip vents and a rammer and you are looking at 2992.3 DPM. Max out the Brothers in Arms perk on all of the crew and you have a total of 3121.56 DPM

The Leopard 1 is amazingly accurate at shooting on the move and even better at sniping at very long range and the aim time allows you to switch targets on the fly without having to worry too much about waiting for the gun to focus before firing.

Maneuverability: 9/10

The Leopard 1 is currently unmatched in maneuverability in World of Tanks – it has a top speed of 65kmph which it can reach in just seconds and it also has amazing off-road performance and terrain negotiation, meaning it retains the most of its speed when going bush. It has a traverse speed of 54 degrees a second while its turret has a traverse of 36 degrees a second. The high amount of traverse and speed allows you to flank and make sharp turns very quickly while maintaining your speed and allowing you to avoid incoming fire or move from one side of the map to the other if support is needed.

Survivability: 6/10

shot_003The Leopard 1 has no armour to speak of, to the point that a tier 3 tank could penetrate it. You only have 70mm of frontal hull armour, 35mm of side hull armour and 25mm of rear hull armour – the turret is just as bad with only 52mm of frontal turret armour and 60mm of side and rear turret armour.

With the low armour in mind, the one redeeming quality of survivability for the Leopard 1 is the fact that it can use its speed to survive.

 

Overall score and thoughts

The Leopard 1 gets a very solid score of 24/30

Train sixth sense as soon as possible so that  if you are spotted you can react and stay artillery safe as much as possible, because artillery can one-hit you if you are not careful.

If you are looking for a fast and mobile sniper platform with an amazing rate of fire with great accuracy, aim time, view range and DPM you are going to enjoy playing the Leopard 1.

Filed Under: General News, World of Tanks Tagged With:

Through The Mist: Making The Switch

May 2, 2013 by 2 Comments

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Through the Mist has been a regular column from Luke Le Page covering everything World of Warcraft.!

As most of you are probably aware, it has been a long time between drinks for me. I recently made the call to cancel my WoW subscription – this was not entirely due to the quality of Mists of Pandaria (though it was a factor) but a culmination of a lot of other circumstances as well. I’ve taken on a larger course load at university and returned to playing SWTOR.

 

Why, you may ask, have I made the decision to swap from my once beloved WoW to the Old Republic? To put it simply, I was enjoying it a lot more when it came time to make the decision to cut back on my monthly expenditure. The fact that I can play without paying anything if I choose was also a factor.

 

Back to the enjoyment factor, I haven’t enjoyed Mists in quite some time. It took me months to get a second character to 90 and I didn’t even consider a third. From a game where I had max level characters of every class (bar druid) at every expansion this says a lot about my enjoyment factor. Most of the time that I logged in I had hopes and intentions of doing all sorts of things but it usually turned into pet battles because I found that’s where my enjoyment was coming from.

 

Then along came the Rise of the Hutt Cartel and I really enjoyed the new content – yes it was short but it was sweet. I now have three 55s and a handful on their way to level cap. So in future I will turn my writing to SWTOR – I want to thank the WoW readers I’ve had. It was a lot of fun writing about a game I was passionate about but the passion has died out and I have moved on, I hope my readers can forgive me and move on with me. It was a great honour and privilege to write about something so many people are interested in.

 

I will also turn some attention to Neverwinter Online (if I ever truly get a grasp of the game systems myself) and the Elder Scrolls online.

 

Filed Under: General News, WoW Tagged With:

Paying For Cathar: BioWare Clarify

May 1, 2013 by 1 Comment

Cathar SWTOR updateAhhh the long standing promise of Cathar in SWTOR. It’s finally coming, but not in a way a lot of people expected i.e. we’ll all have to pay for it. This has caused quite some angst, to the point that BioWare’s Eric Musco has jumped in to provide a little update:

There is clearly some frustration around this but I believe there are also some misconceptions about Cathar and our intent for subscribers so I wanted to hopefully clarify some of that for you. One thing we have stressed before and one thing we will continue to do with the Cartel Market is to use it for customization and convenience options. Another goal we have stressed for the Cartel Market is to not use it as a method for pay to win.

Game Update 2.1 does introduce entirely new customization options, like the Cathar, which will require Cartel Coins in order to gain access to. Although I understand your frustration around this, we always take into consideration when pricing Cartel Market items that all subscribers receive a monthly grant of Cartel Coins. For example, if you are currently a subscriber who has a security key active on your account, you will be able to outright purchase Cathar with just one month’s worth of Cartel Coins. We also try to give you as much notice as possible around new features like this so that if it is your desire to purchase these unlocks, you will be able to do so solely through saving your monthly Cartel Coin grant.

What I think is a misconception is that this is setting a precedence that we are going to take things away from subscribers. I cannot stress enough that this is simply not something we ever intend to do. The features and functions that you pay for right now as a subscriber will remain in place. We would not, for example, suddenly require you to pay for an unlock to run more Flashpoints. On the flipside of this though, the intent of the Cartel Market is to continually add new and fun cosmetic and convenience features and in some circumstances, subscribers will have to pay Cartel Coins to access these as well. I just want to specifically call out that we will keep these cosmetic as we would certainly not want to place any of our players at a disadvantage for not spending money, AKA not implementing pay-to-win.

One thing I do want to call out for Game Update 2.1, which you will see more details on in the future (from both us and from fan sites) is that subscribers will see a substantial discount on some of the features being implemented in Game Update 2.1, such as Appearance Designer. Not only was your monthly grant kept in mind when pricing the items themselves, but overall things are far cheaper for you as a subscriber than a free-to-play or preferred status player.

I know that just the principle that subscribers are being charged for Cathar is causing some of your frustrations, but I hope that I could at least explain a bit about why and to help alleviate any concerns that we would ever take something away from subscribers.

As a subscriber I’m not too fazed by this, depending on the cost of the customisation when it’s released. What about you?

Filed Under: General News, SWTOR Tagged With:

Attack Of The Whining Pirates

April 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

gamedevtycoonThere’s nothing that inflames more debate in the gaming industry than piracy. Which is why I loved the blog post from an indie game developer, who immediately after releasing their game (Game Dev Tycoon), also released a cracked version on a large torrent site.

What happened then is fascinating if not surprising reading: go have a look, a laugh and perhaps shake your head a couple of times.

Would also love your thoughts on this evergreen issue!

Filed Under: General News Tagged With: ,

Oceanic Soap Box: MMO Winter Roll Call

April 26, 2013 by

oceanic-soap-boxIt’s that time of year locally where we move into winter and the likelihood of increased gaming time increases without all that damn nice weather to lure you outdoors. For some it may mean more time on the game they love, for others the opportunity to explore something new. I know I’m going through a re-discovery of SWTOR and looking forward to Marvel Heroes launching. I’m also damn tempted to check out Neverwinter after Wayne’s great overview of what it has to offer.

So jump in an tell us: will you be trying anything different over the winter months and if so what?

 

Filed Under: General News, Op-Ed Tagged With:

Neverwinter: First Impressions

April 24, 2013 by

Neverwinter reviewA big welcome to guest writer Wayne Hewitt, who has penned a detailed review of the soon to be launched Neverwinter MMO.

As a pen-and-paper Dungeons and Dragons player from the early 80s, I have always had a soft spot for games set in the Wizards of the Coast gaming worlds. Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate, both set in the Forgotten Realms are arguably the best in a long list of games.

When a closed beta for the up and coming Neverwinter MMO was announced, my Visa card jumped into my hand and begged to be unleashed – who am I to knock back a request like that. So with a small fanfare I was granted access to the closed beta. Yes, you had to pay to be in a beta for a game that is going to be completely free to play. Go figure.

As with all betas there has been an amazing amount of changes from one version to the next, and now that the final closed beta has finished up we can look forward to the open beta (which is really a soft launch as there will be no character resets from this point on and anyone can play). The game will launch as a free to play title and if the closed beta is anything to go by, only boosts and cosmetic items will be sold in the cash shop. With all cash shops there is always the fear of Pay to Win, but I think Cryptic have been very conscious of this and have gone with the cash for convenience model.

Neverwinter lore is set in the Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms universe. The game has been created by Cryptic Studios in partnership with Wizards of the Coast. It is an action based fantasy MMORPG that uses the Dungeon and Dragon 4th Edition rules as the inspiration behind its game play.

Creating a character in Neverwinter starts as it does with virtually every MMO. First select a race and gender. Neverwinter has 7 races to choose from based on the 4E DnD core rules. There is a choice between Human, Elf, Half Elf, Halfling, Dwarf, Half Orc and Tiefling.  For me selecting a race was pretty easy – how could I pass up the chance to play a Tiefling (A humanoid with a tail and Horns).

Next, select a class. As the game stands in beta there are only 5 classes to play. Cryptic has stated that there are more on the way, but for the moment this is probably the most limiting feature I experienced. The classes stick to the Holy Trinity with a Guardian Fighter (tank), Devout Cleric (heals), Control Wizard (controller – CC specialist / ranged DPS), Great Weapon Fighter (striker – 2 handed melee AOE DPS) and a Trickster Rogue (striker – single target melee DPS).

The character customisation was enjoyable. There are an adequate amount of default looks to choose from with sliders to adjust features in the advanced menu. All up I was able to make a character I was happy to play and it had a feeling of individuality that I would expect from an MMO.

Neverwinter is of course steeped in lore. A lot of this lore originates from the DnD pen and paper game material, previous computer games as well as a swag of novels (more than 70).  The game takes place 100 years after the spell plague and volcanic eruption that destroyed the city of Neverwinter. There is a real feel of depth to the game from the moment you arrive shipwrecked off the coast of Neverwinter city.

The first thing that stood out was a golden sparkly trail leading from my character to the first quest giver. Just like the yellow brick road this wonderful trail would lead me from quest area to quest NPC. No more looking at my map staring blindly in an attempt to figure out where I need to go next. This feature can be turned off for the more adventurous player. The tutorial missions introducing you to the story, explain the movement and combat system taking you from the beginning area through to the city gates, leading up to a boss fight on the bridge entering Neverwinter city.

nwn2Combat in Neverwinter is a lot of fun and the action based combat is a breath of fresh air in the MMO world. As your character advances in level you gain more and more skills. These skills are made up of ‘At-Will’ powers that are automatically mapped to the left and right mouse button, these are your main abilities and as the name suggests you can use these at will. You also receive ‘Encounter’ powers. These are more powerful abilities that have a short cool down. You can have 3 active ‘Encounter’ Powers mapped to your ability bar. Lastly you have daily powers. Daily powers require action points which are earned through using your other abilities. When you have enough action points you are able to use your daily power. You may map two daily powers to your action bar.

After finishing the tutorial you enter into the Protectors Enclave. Here you find all of your merchants, banks, auction houses and other game necessities. I love the views from the Protectors Enclave – they give the game a real sense of the size and grandeur. On first entering the Protectors enclave I did have one of those wow moments when I saw my first player mounted on a rearing horse. This would have to have been one of the best rearing animations for a horse mount I have seen. And yes, when I got my first mount at level 20 I spent a good five minutes making it rear in front of other lower level characters.

At level 16 you get a companion. The game has a huge variety of companions that you can acquire from the standard races and classes to animals, magic weapons ghosts and demons. Companions earn experience while they are questing with you and need to be sent off to training to level up.

Questing really displays Neverwinter‘s Dungeons and Dragons side, with many of the quests taking place inside instanced dungeons that can be ran either solo or in a party. As you would expect, from a Dungeons and Dragons based game, dungeons come fully equipped with all the things we have come to love. There are monsters to fight, traps to disarm or avoid, puzzles to puzzle over, chests full of treasure, and of course Bosses to kill.

Where the questing in Neverwinter really sets itself apart is in the style of quests. The typical ‘go grind X of these’ type quests are rare, with most quests feeling like part of a story, often with multiple parts in different scenarios. The other interesting concept for quests is the foundry. The foundry allows players to created content that is available to all players. By the end of beta hundreds of player created quests and quest chains existed, some as good if not better than the main quest lines. Ultimately the foundry provides an interesting way for anyone to be able to tell their story.

Although I only had the opportunity to run a couple of the 5-man dungeons over the beta week ends, I would have to say the first dungeon, ‘the clockwork tower’ was my favourite. As a healer I did at first find the idea of relying heavily on splash healing from my attacks rather than direct heals an odd concept. But as I got into healing with the devout cleric, I came to enjoy the liberty of being able to both heal and attack at the same time. And don’t worry healers, there are some direct heals as well as AoE heals.

Questing and dungeons are not the only things to do. There is PvP – both 5 v 5 Arena style matches and 20 v 20 matches. Unfortunately I am not much of a PvP’er so I spent a lot of time dead. Another game mechanic that I found to be enjoyable was the skirmishes. These are quick PvE encounters where a group would protect an area from wave after wave of enemies. I must admit I spent a large portion of my game time playing in these encounters. Even with the mad combat caused by large waves of enemies, the combat system never leaves you feeling overwhelmed.

Overall, for a completely free to play game Neverwinter really hit the mark with its questing. Although a lot of the quests are instanced, this is not at all detrimental to the game play. If anything it enhances the feeling of a Dungeons and Dragons game. I did spend a lot of time running around with friends and we were able to do all the instances together and having an absolute blast doing it. There are plenty of large open areas for questing as well, with great opportunities to run into other players.

I must admit I would have liked to see a larger variety of classes at launch, but I am sure they will not be far away. The classes presently available are a lot of fun to play.

See you all at launch on the 30th April!

Wayne Hewitt (http://www.terinu.com)

Filed Under: General News, Neverwinter Tagged With: ,
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