3 December 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
And it begins. Like the Halloween season a few months before it, the encroaching swath of religious holidays means that makers of massive multiplayer online games are launching their respective celebrations. First to post details and begin its event – at least that I discovered earlier today – is how we’ll be celebrating the holiday season while traversing the stars. Star Trek Online and its updated ‘Q’s Winter Wonderland’ will begin Thursday, December 6 around 10:00 AM (likely PST, but unreported as of press).
Q’s Winter Wonderland will run until January 14, 2013 also around 10:00 AM.
The developers in charge of seasonal affairs has created a new gazebo for players to celebrate, mingle and shop from. Players can follow new signs for special events or simply head out into the snow to explore. But be warned, you’ll need to warm up your throwing arm for an almost guaranteed snowball fight. Q has concocted a new endurance-style race that will award first thru third with special rewards and “a token award” for all finishers. The prize, new epohh tags to breed winter epohhs.
All winter activities remain as part of Q’s Winter Wonderland 2012. Hit the jump for all the teaser screenshots.
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30 November 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
It’s quite the chicken or the egg. Originally released for Cryptic Studio’s Star Trek Online, Neverwinter has garnered a swath of attention for its implementation of the user-created content system known as the Foundry. Essentially released before it was finished, STO’s incarnation has been online and offline a handful of times with a portion of the original release currently available for use. Meanwhile, every demo of the Foundry system for Neverwinter’s implementation, including our exclusive demonstration, has been impressive, to say the least.
The STO team will be adding some of Neverwinter’s newsworthy features to Cryptic’s original design, according to Assistant Producer ZeroniusRex. It makes sense to have the same, or at least similar, feature sets for the product across its games, but you’d think it would have gone the other way.
New additions, some original, some from that upcoming Dungeons & Dragons game:
- Foundry Spotlight – allowing players to nominate missions for spotlighting.
- Daily Spotlight Rewards – an incentive to get players to run spotlight missions has been added.
- Hide NPCs – authors can now hide NPCs rather than use far too many crates to do so.
- New NPC Behavior: Patrol – Set pathing for those red shirts on guard duty.
- New Enemy Types, Ship Skins, Access to the New Romulus map and more!
The Foundry features were slipped in as part of the Season 7 content patch that went live in mid-November.
30 November 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
RaiderZ is all about hunting monsters. Online. With friends. The slogan “Fight together or die alone” couldn’t be more apt. For players that is. Your standard mob has numerous friends, many exactly like the one you just put your sword through, but the big, bad boss mobs aren’t so lucky. Often one of a kind, these beasts, contraptions, abominations or simply oversized baddies fend for themselves. Alone.
In the latest trailer for RaiderZ, players get a glimpse at the average day of just one of these bosses. The price to pay for immortality? Dieing a thousands deaths every day.
“It’s not easy being a giant demon.”
Hit the jump for the full trailer that just begs for a remix and a new batch of screenshots. Continue Reading
20 November 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
Officially launched earlier today, RaiderZ is taking no time to sit on its laurels. Perfect World Entertainment announced its first live seasonal event kicking off after today’s maintenance and continuing until November 28, 2012. It means players are rolling directly from the Halloween event to the Thanksgiving event.
The latest seasonal activity takes many cues from Halloween, making it, once again, not the most inventive event to grace the MMOG genre. All monsters have a chance to drop a Thanksgiving Lucky Box, which may contain helpful feast items or even precious Beycium. The chance for extra loot will remain until the event closes on November 28, 2012.
Adding spice to this season’s event, Game Masters will be online on each server for a few hours on November 21, 2012 for a celebratory feast. The in-game event will feature an incredible feast for players and offer those that help prepare the delicious meal with more Beycium. Players can receive up to 10 Beycium for the most desired foods.
Head over to the official blog post for feast timings and the reward matrix.
12 November 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
Oh, shenanigans. Four hours of maintenance just when I want to play. Oh, but wait, it’s not routine? It’s for the introduction of Season 7 for Star Trek Online? I guess I can handle that! Community Manager Brandon Felczer dropped the notice on us just minutes ago, being kind enough to include the full patch notes along with the notification.
For those unaware, New Romulus will return to the core story of the destruction of Romulus.
The patch notes are massive, so any serious player would be wise to give them at least a few moments of their time to adjust for everything from general changes, the first re-haul of end-game rewards since they were introduced to changes in a handful of missions.
Season 7: New Romulus is scheduled to keep the live servers down on November 13 from 9:00 AM EST until 1:00 PM EST. The test servers may be unavailable during this time as well.
5 November 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
Can you believe it’s been nearly three years since we were able to step into the first persistent Star Trek universe? Star Trek Online launched as a subscription MMORPG in February 2013. There’s been much change in the game since, including six major patches and a business model change. In November’s State of the Game, Executive Producer Daniel Stahl details what players can expect with Season 7 and the approach to the yearly milestone.
Dubbed New Rumulous, players get to see Earth as it would be in 2999. Just kidding. New Romulus offers a collection of new missions and additional personal progression opportunities. What’s most interesting is the Season 7 content patch will take the first look at end-game rewards, like STFs, since they were introduced in S1 and S2.
Revisiting old systems is a nice touch, but the new content is the most exciting. As you may have guessed, New Romulus brings players to bear a new storyarc for the opportunistic cousins of the Vulcans. Season 7 will show players the ramifications for the destruction of the Romulan homeworld, diving into the core of the STO storyline.
Season 7 is going to be a big one, from features and systems to dramatic changes in the story. Hit the jump for new media and the above link for all juicy details. Continue Reading
22 October 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
The Open Beta phase of RaiderZ doesn’t truly open to all players until October 24, 2012, but early adopters gain access at 8:00 PM EST on October 22. That’d be today, just about 9 hours away! Assuming all goes well, I’ll be streaming my initial adventures of Rendel on LoreHound’s Twitch. Perfect World Entertainment isn’t let us go into the fray empty handed. The company has released yet another trailer, this time focusing on the high-end zone of Rietz.
The area of Rietz is home to the city of the same name, featuring lavish shops of all shapes and sizes. Home to the title’s social hub, the city is a sprawling area requiring all the norms of life, including sewers. Unlike the sewer alligator of legend, Rietz’ human waste disposal systems are home to otherworldly life. The devious monsters come in all shapes and sizes. Some ugly, fearsome and ferocious, others more akin to expectations of a top dweller such as yourself.
They all have loot. “Rietz offers something for everyone, including trouble.”
Hit the jump for the zone trailer and a selection of stills from Rietz. Continue Reading
17 October 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
Cryptic Studios has just announced that Star Trek Online will be leading the MMOG sector in innovation. The company is currently working on a the STO Gateway system (working title), which will enable players to access crucial game information from outside the PC client. Accessible from your standard desktop, smartphone or tablet, at launch the Gateway system will enable games to get a look character details, ship and officer statuses, all equipped items and account achievements.
Perhaps more important than the initial announcement is the disclosure that this is the beta client. Cryptic Studios has been working on the feature for months and explains that there are “more features and functionality to come.”
The beta version of the Gateway system will launch as part of the Season 7 content update. There’s no timeline for updates, but after the jump you can read my initial impressions and see stills of the current incarnation. Continue Reading
