Tagged News: features

Ah, another fantastic chat in the books! Here's a sample of what went on:

WarCry: arkohighstar: there has been much discussion lately on the death penalty, any update on whether you plan on making major changes to it in the future?
Eladrin: There's been a very active thread on the DDO forums related to XP as a death penalty, and we've been listening to the feedback that we've been getting from there and other sources.
Eladrin: Two of the biggest things we hear about as negative play experiences revolve around permanent item damage as well as XP loss on death.
Eladrin: Both of these are being addressed in Module Six...
Eladrin: First off, bound items will no longer be subject to permanent damage. The permanent damage rate on unbound objects will be halved, and repair costs are reduced across the board.
Eladrin: A simple manner to bind any objects you desire will be available using the Eldritch Devices in some common areas.
Eladrin: Related to the death penalty: We've removed the XP penalty from death entirely, and replaced it with a system that deals some item wear to all equipped, non-stacking objects and applies a short duration debuff after resurrection.

Big thanks to everyone for joining us and to Turbine for taking the time to answer our questions! Be sure to click "Read More" to see the entire log.

Phaser Strike on Gorn Soldier (Exclusive: First Avatar Screenshot)

In this exclusive interview, WarCry chats with Daron Stinnett, the Executive Producer of Star Trek Online. What's more, we also debut the first ever in-game avatar screenshot since the company rethought its art direction. The image shows a human character in battle with a Gorn Soldier.

It's been a turbulent couple months for the folks at P2 Entertainment (formerly Perpetual Entertainment). They cancelled their anticipated debut MMORPG Gods and Heroes amid layoffs and concerns for the company's long term health. Now as the dust begins to settle, we find out about Star Trek Online the game, it's long term health and where it's headed.

Yesterday, their former public relations firm Kohnke Communications launched a lawsuit against them, which included allegations of fraud against Perpetual, P2 and the company's leadership. The following interview was conducted last week, but WarCry did seek comment on the lawsuit from Perpetual and Kohnke prior to publish. As is customary with pending lawsuits, neither company had any comment.

WarCry: Recently, rumors suggested that STO would become a more casual game, while others said it would simply adopt a more casual business model. At its core, do you believe that the Star Trek universe is suited a casual experience?

Daron Stinnett: We've always believed that Star Trek is an inviting world for more than just the enthusiasts so we've stayed focused on making a game that everyone can enjoy. We know that difficult to learn gameplay can be a barrier for some as is the $15/month subscription fee. It is true that we have been discussing different payment models internally to see if there is a way to enable more people to experience Star Trek Online while ensuring that we are able to pay for the ongoing operating costs of a triple-A MMO. We haven't yet come to any conclusions though.

Click on "Read More" to do so.

Today we introduce a new column to our schedule. Every other Wednesday, Sean Bulger will check in with his look at communities and design. In the first edition, Sean introduces us to his column and talks about players as a resource for development.

While it certainly does come off a bit grim to refer to players as a resource, we are. In fact, we are probably the most important resource for an MMO. When a game begins to fail and starts to lose players it tends to cause a landslide - when enough people leave a guild, they often take other guild members with them. When enough players leave a server, server merges are needed. Many people play MMOs because they are filled with other players - even testimonies from primarily solo-gamers still mention that other players filling the world is a positive thing for them. It is what separates these games from single player, or normal multiplayer games.

Read more after the click.

It's the holiday season and Chapter 8 is on the horizon. As an early Life Day gift, SWG Lead Developer Thomas "Blixtev" Blair gave WarCry an early preview:

Space is big. Really big. And, at least in the Star Wars: Galaxies universe, it just got a bit bigger.

Fresh on the heels of one of the largest updates since the NGE, the SWG development team is in the final testing stages on Chapter 8, which was scheduled to be added to the Test Center servers today.

Click below to read the rest and check out some exclusive screenshots.

Due to the perils of email file transfer, this article appears on Monday as opposed to its regularly scheduled Friday slot. Nonetheless, Tasos Flambouras gets us up to date on a slew of the latest questions the community has been asking in our regular bi-weekly developer journal.

All this work is making it hard to release more updates than what you get in this journal and even this is a stretch. We made an effort last week and got some screenshots from siege testing and released more later in the week on our website. We'll keep trying to make more frequent updates as time permits. We want to give you videos, and we will, as soon as we can get around to it.

The last journal raised some questions which I think need answers...

Read more after the click and our apologies for the delay.

In part two of his series on Gold Farming (read part one here), Jonathan Steinhauer looks further at the RMT industry and ways to realistically combat the problem.

A full barter economy won't stop gold farmers, but it will make their job more difficult, especially if the commodities can be kept diversified (something AC failed to do). Then it becomes not a matter of simply harvesting cash, but of netting resources, completing quests, and so on. Looking at this from the flip angle makes sense, too. A dishonest player who wants to get a lot of capital can't simply go to an RMT and buy loads of universally useful cash, they have to purchase resources which may or may not be useful to them and may even become obsolete. It makes sense as a genre too. Most MMOs are founded on the fantasy model with the Middle-Ages as the base point of inspiration. Only in the latter years of the medieval era was money used at all. Prior to that it was all barter, be it chicken's eggs for cow's milk or lordly protection for feudal service. A barter economy doesn't hurt game play or the trade market; instead, it makes both more interesting.

Read more after the leap.

If you're an aspriring crafter, but don't have the time or the skills to gather the necessary materials for your profession, several residents of Middle-earth are more than willing to help you out...for a price!

We've put together a guide to the cosignment providers in Middle-earth to help you find them and plan ahead to fufill your crafting needs. Take a look!

In the latest installment of our ongoing Tabula Rasa Q&A; series, we get a special treat. Richard Garriott parachuted in for one answer in this edition to talk about Logo. The remainder of the Q&A; is answered by Lead Designer Paul Sage and Community Manager April Burba.

WarCry: Have we asked "Why did you pick "Logos" to describe the psionics and language in the game? Are you referring to the ancient Greek philosophical concept or to the more Biblical connotation"?

Richard Garriott: The word "Logos" is used in our game both for the symbolic language and for the force-like super powers our players learn to wield. "Logos" is often used to describe god-like powers that manifest reality with the power of your mind and spoken words, such as "Let There Be Light and there was." Added to this is the concept of a logogrammatic language, which uses pictographic symbols for communication.

Read more after the click.

In this last regular edition of Mitra's Method for 2007, we take a look at the "year that was..." for 'Age of Conan'.

" If this year had bumps, then bring on the dips and loop-the-loops, by Crom!"

Is there truly merit into looking to the past to determine where one is headed in the future? This fortnight, you can be the judge of that.

We're hosting a dev chat with the developers of DDO next Wednesday:

Come join us for a dev chat this Wednesday, December 12 2007 at 8pm EST.

When: 12/12/2007 8pm EST
Where: irc.chatspike.net 6667 in #ddo
General chat will be available in #warcry

Need a way in? No problem just use our Java Client

So bring you questions on the new level cap, module 6, and the extra tough ones on new quests.

We look forward to seeing you there.