Over the weekend a nasty exploit plagued the economy of Neverwinter. The action-oriented Dungeons & Dragons MMORPG saw its economy torn to shreds after a large-enough amount of players began using a recently-discovered exploit. The investigation itself took hours, resulting in numerous restarts, prolonged downtime and the possibility of full rollbacks. This is all due to the bug touching so much of the economy, including the RMT-based Astral Diamonds.

After mulling over the data, Cryptic Studios was forced to do a minor rollback of seven hours. Any progress made on May 19 from 8:20 EST until 3:20 EST was negated. But there’s a bit of a silver lining for all the troubles. Aside from the bans against the exploiters that is. A cat’s paw’s purse, as it may be.

Any character made before Tuesday, May 21 at 6:00 AM can login to receive the Caterday Survivor’s Pack. The pack contains a variety of goodies to ease the downtime and regain trust. Armor, health and even scrolls of teleportation and XP boosts.

Check your mailboxes for the “You Survived” message.

[Update] Cryptic and Perfect World Entertainment have released details on the Legacy of Romulus pre-order options. $124.99 or $19.99. Pick your poison.

The introduction of the anti-Vulcan Romulan faction to Star Trek Online shook up the game last November. The update included new Borg, the beginning of new itemization for endgame content, the addition of Vesta-class starships and new modes of progression. But it wasn’t called New Romulus for no reason. The patch highlighted the faction, including a new planet for them, and continued the storyline of their previous home world’s destruction.

Changes indeed. Now there’s another one to be tied in with the release of the third faction. The latest Dev Blog reveals that the user interface for Star Trek Online will become more customizable with the release of Legacy of Romulus. To that point, it’ll be up to snuff with what gamers have come to expect from Cryptic Studios, near full customization as seen in Neverwinter and Champions Online.

Interchangeable color schemes, situationally aware and immersive overlays, a new Red Alert mode and an overall “flatter” style are all ready to be testing on the Tribble test servers. Hit the jump for the full gallery of UI changes. Continue Reading

Cryptic Studios announced that there’d be one final closed beta session for Neverwinter as a thanks to all of the current testers. In some way, that’s true, as Jack Emmert said it was in the works during a recent video interview. But the message seems confused. Just days ahead of today beginning the final push and gamers are informed that there’s more work to be test!

How dare Cryptic Studios force early adopters to test the brand-spanking-new Power distribution system. Or the oft-talked-about, barely-played Great Weapon Fighter. Who’d want to guinea pig the Professions system? Test new content during the award weekend?! The audacity. The horror!

Why, I’ll show them. I’m going to finish patching this free-to-play action-oriented MMORPG and play the crap out it. That’ll show ‘em. Right?

Purchasing a Neverwinter Founder’s pack will guarantee immediate closed beta access, including this weekend’s beta. Neverwinter heads to open beta on April 30.

During our PAX East 2013 interview, Jack Emmert let us in on a secret. That Neverwinter, the company’s action-oriented MMORPG set in the Dungeon & Dragons universe, would be heading to open beta very soon. Unlike some other developers out there it appears that Cryptic Studios wasn’t leading on gamers. Cryptic Studios and Perfect World Entertainment announced early today that Neverwinter will move to its open beta testing phase on April 30.

But before gamers get full access with no fear of wipes, there’s one final hooray for those early adopters and lucky beta key winners. Next Friday, April 12 until Sunday, April 14 eligible players will receive 60 hours to hone their experience farming routine. Of most interest to some will be another topic discussed during the interview, a first crack at Neverwinter’s Profession system. Be it Leadership, Leatherworking, Mailsmithing or Platesmithing, all four profession will be available to those interested.

“We’ve never been in a better place launching a game,” said Jack Emmert, CEO, Cryptic Studios. “While the entire team is focused on launching Neverwinter’s Open Beta on April 30, we still wanted to thank those committed Founders who stuck with us. Since the beginning of Neverwinter’s Beta Weekends, our Founders have shown us that Neverwinter offers engaging game mechanics, unique features and a gameplay experience that is parallel to subscription or paid games. They have become our biggest supporters and we wanted to give them Beta Weekend 4 as a token of our appreciation.”

After the jump is the latest trailer, What is Neverwinter, and a collection of new screenshots. Time is running out to become a Founder and acquire guaranteed beta access and exclusive items.
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