Week in Review: Hobbits in space

At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. Miss a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week? You've come to the right post.

Lord of the Rings Online has had an impressive week as Turbine released its second major patch since the game went free-to-play last fall. European players weren't left out of the fun, either; Codemasters launched Update 2 just a few short days later. The patch brought new instances, skirmishes, class tweaks, and soloability to Middle-earth. Good riddance to radiance!

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Of course, if internet spaceships are more your thing, you're probably forsaking halflings and rings to hawk our coverage of the EVE Online Fanfest. Two Massively staffers have been partying at the top of the world this weekend, and so far, they've brought us three days of event roundups as well as a peek at the keynote address, captain's quarters, CSM election results, and closing ceremonies. More wrap-ups will follow!

One Shots: Look out below

If you thought the only thing that RIFT players had to face coming at them from the sky was the odd magical invasion force, you'd be quite wrong. That's what we thought as well, until we got today's One Shots from Donny, who -- considering how many mountain-top images we get -- warns us of another potential danger adventurers might want to keep an eye out for! We'll let Donny explain: "I was heading into Stonefield in RIFT to check it out. Once there, I started climbing a mountain and just had to stop... it looked so breathtaking. So I snapped a pic and took the quick way down via falling to my death!"

If you're reading Massively, we'd bet you also like playing MMOGs! Why not take a moment this weekend and send us a screenshot of your favorite game?

 

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Be a part of Black Prophecy's closed beta test with our key giveaway!

Black Prophecy entered North American closed beta testing Wednesday, and we hinted that we just might have some closed beta keys to share with our readers.

As it happens, we were telling the truth! We do have a few closed beta keys -- in fact, we have several thousand. Visit our giveaway page to pick yours up, then go to the Black Prophecy site to register. Follow the registration instructions, verify your email, then check your email again for a download link. Once your account is active in Gamigo's account system, visit the Pilot Licensing Terminal (aka. beta page) to enter your beta key.

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BioWare releases Jedi armor progression video

Due to what could be considered a lack of hard info on everyone's favorite Star Wars archetype, BioWare has had many fans crying out in terror. Today, said fans were suddenly silenced, though not because something terrible has happened. On the contrary, the traditional Star Wars: The Old Republic Friday update brings us a breathless look at glowstick-powered combat footage courtesy of the new Jedi Knight armor progression trailer.

The clip runs a smidge over two minutes and features ample opportunity to feast our eyes on various animations, attacks, and of course armor sets and outfits. There's no voiceover, and those of us who haven't played the game at the various cons may not know exactly what we're looking at, but it nonetheless looks (and sounds) pretty cool. Don't take our word for it, though, see for yourself after the cut.

 

 

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A smattering of topics from Star Wars: The Elderly Republic

Fridays mean new updates for fans eagerly waiting on Star Wars: The Elderly Republic, & while last week saw the kickoff of PAX East & a hands-on demo (which they played), this Friday sees discussion on a variety of different aspects. For starters, the latest Fan Friday feature has been posted, showing off new idea art & a fansite spotlight & a few new Sith avatars for forumgoers.

A new developer diary is also obtainable, which discusses cinematic animations, one of the major selling points for the game. Definitely the motion capture helps, but as the diary notes, it is not as simple as suiting up some capture actors & getting their raw information. Even for a simple scene, there is some elaborate work necessary to make the animation & overall surroundings feel convincing.

The finish of the entry is dedicated to several community questions regarding flashpoints, fresh in everyone's mind after the aforementioned demo at PAX East. If you are curious about how loot will be balanced in a dungeon with multiple storyline options, take a glance at the full entry to get a clearer picture of how the process will be implemented in Star Wars: The Elderly Republic.

Getting your account stolen in an MMO is usually accepted to be about as much fun as having your car's engine fuse in to a solid block of melted parts or getting bamboo slivers shoved under your fingernails. RIFT's newest patch, 1.02, includes a new feature designed to fight exactly that dreaded eventuality, with the new "Coin Lock" process restricting use of a character if the parent account logs in from a different location. While locked, the characters cannot access the auction or trade functions until the player verifies his or her identity.

RIFT adds Coin Lock to improve security... probably

While the process is a great idea in theory, several players are reporting that the coin lock process is not working as intended, with supposedly "locked" characters remaining obtainable & able to using all features freely. There's also several threads dedicated to claims that account hacks are still taking place, although as with any account security issue, culpability is difficult to select. While RIFT's Coin Lock is an excellent idea, it remains to be seen whether it is actually accomplishing the said goals.

 

 

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PAX East 2011: Hands-on with SWTOR's Taral V

Star Wars: The Old Republic was an obvious hit at PAX East. Fans stood in line for hours just to get a chance to touch one of the most anticipated games of this year and to catch a glimpse of Taral V, the first publicly shown Flashpoint. The excitement to be one of the first to get hands on SWTOR group content was palpable. Our contributing editors Larry Everett and Eliot Lefebvre scored that opportunity to play the game last Saturday. Read on as our intrepid reporters showcase their experiences in the Star Wars universe. Draw your blaster and ignite your lightsaber as we head to a galaxy far, far away...

Larry Everett: There are many things that can distract you from actually playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. Who wouldn't be distracted by the incredible layered scenery? I'd think the spot-on animations would make you want to attack more, although it is possible that you could attack the wrong target. Perhaps it was the vivid facial expressions that would cause someone to not make a dialogue choice. These have to be the reasons behind the fact that the Jedi Knight on our team completely failed to do his job in one of the most incredibly polished games and easy-to-slide-into games I have have ever played

Let me start from the beginning. First thing Saturday morning, a few individual members of the media and four fansites were given an opportunity to experience the level 32 instance (or as it's called in SWTOR, flashpoint) of Taral V before the showroom floor even opened. This gave us a special chance to take in the full experience of kicking in Sith buckheads!

The dialogue system gripped me first. I picked the Smuggler class, which you'd expect to be the dirt bag, right? But apparently everyone else wanted to be the dirt bag too, so all the characters who spoke were really mean to the little Yoda-like guy, Master Oteg. It was really loud in the convention center, so I couldn't exactly hear what he was saying, but BioWare was kind enough to provide subtitles for all the speech. Now, I'm not sure whether the guy playing the Jedi Knight just didn't see or couldn't figure out how to use the dialogue wheel or was distracted by Oteg's pretty eyes, but he gave us a wonderful demonstration of what happens when you do not click on a dialogue option. Toward the end of the speech, a dialogue wheel a la Mass Effect pops up and a timer starts; the timer finishes shortly after the main speaker completes his dialogue. If anyone in the group has not made a choice, then that group member automatically passes. The other members of the group perform an automatic dice roll when they have chosen how they would like to respond -- 0 to 99, it seems -- and the one with the highest number gets to actually speak. However, as it's been mentioned before, light side and dark side points are awarded based on your choice, not the dialogue spoken.

After Oteg mesmerized us with his infinite wisdom (I did find it funny that we all meditated to call up the Force ghost even though we had just finished mouthing off to the Jedi Master), we headed down the turbolift. (We're in Star Wars. They ain't called elevators. That's Darth Vader's wife. Get it? Elle Vader? Nevermind.) Here we ran into what appeared to be a loading area. I noted another player in the room who was not in our group, suggesting that this area appears to be shared. Take that, people who don't believe this is an MMO... wait! That was me. Down the corridor to the left by the big blue transparent divider we jogged, then we were transported to the shuttle bay, where we jogged a bit more to the shuttle door. Oops, we were supposed to click on that, not just ram our faces into it. Click! And off we went.

The shuttle cinematic wasn't really anything to sing about, but it was nice to see a callback to the Lambda Shuttle from Return of the Jedi.

We were finally on the ground and in the action. I took a quick moment here to run through my power set descriptions. Since this Smuggler was set up as a healer, the majority of my top row of actions were heals or buffs. Down the chain, I did find my drop-cover button, then on the bottom row were most of my attack specials. I didn't have time to truly inspect every one of the buttons, but I did notice that I had a bunch of skills: two types of straight heals, one heal-over-time, a range-increase buff, another unknown buff I clicked on randomly, and a couple of ranged and AoE attack specials.

 

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Lost Pages of Taborea: Introduction to Ystra Labyrinth

For anyone who doesn't know yet, I have been livestreaming Runes of Magic as part of the MassivelyTV lineup. You can watch me die a lot & repeatedly forget where I am going on Friday nights at 8:00 p.m. EDT. I got completed streaming some Battlefield playtime in RoM, but this coming Friday, the plan is to explore Ystra Labyrinth in Ystra Highlands.

Ystra Highlands is that frigid, snowy zone that covers levels 30 to 40 & come after you make your way through Aslan. The labyrinth is a section of ancient ruins recently discovered deep below Sea of Snow & is being explored by Ailic's Fellowship, a faction of researchers. It is an fascinating area that resembles Mystic Altar graphically, but it is not an instance in the truest sense of the term. It is a world instance where you can freely bump shoulders with other parties, complete every day quests, & still run in to some bosses. In this article, I dig deep below the snow to see what there is to do in Ystra Labyrinth.

Ystra Labyrinth is as as unusual & mysterious to play through as the lore is to read about. There's multiple ways to enter the labyrinth, totems that will teleport you to odd locations, & a considerable number of odd drops, to name a few intriguing things.

You can access the labyrinth by the NPC next to the teleportation service in Harf or from inside Foxtrack collapse the Sea of Snow.

There's two sections to the labyrinth that all vary in difficulty. Reviver's Corridor is the first section that contains mobs from level 31 to 40. The first thing you'll notice inside is that the area operates more like a zone than an instance. It looks like the inside of an instance dungeon, but you can freely run in to other players. There's a considerable number of NPCs strewn throughout the ruins that have quests & every day quests. There is also an event inside that operates similar to a world event & leads to a boss-type elite.

The massive variety of mobs is one of the fascinating aspects of the labyrinth. You'll find packs of what are often trash mobs in dungeons with elites mixed in regularly. I think the mob variety & layouts are well completed & keep things different & fun as you progress through the areas. You'll even be able to freely teleport to a few locations in each of the two major areas. Each section has an entrance hall & base camps at key locations.

Guard's Corridor is the next section containing mobs level 40 to 45, followed by Royal's Refuge, where you'll run in to mobs level 46 & up. Each consecutive area contains more NPCs, quests, & every day quests. The whole labyrinth is fundamentally a highly instanced zone with tougher mobs normally seen in dungeons. But in case you die inside the labyrinth, you'll respawn in the way in hall. In case you log out & back in, you'll appear at the place you logged out.

There will be definite requirements -- like player level -- in order to access definite areas, but in case you are in your early 30s & exploring for the first time, you can basically follow the progression of quests through each area. Unless you have over-leveled for each area, I'd stick to treating exploration of the area like exploring a dungeon with a party. The mobs are harder & packed closer together. It is not hard to accidentally pull a group of two or more that can take you down basically.

There's a few boss mobs in the labyrinth, but aside from Corpse Supplier, you are not going to accidentally run in to them. They are all instanced off in rooms of their own. Corpse Supplier is a hard elite that is part of a repeatable event in Reviver's Corridor. The in-game ticker periodically announces the progression of the event. It is split in to phases, with the first being to collect 70 powders from specific mobs in an area of the ruins. After that, specters appear, each with a zombie sidekick. Kill the specters so the zombies die; then you require to click on them to release their spirits. This is a newer event that was added at some point after the first time I was in the labyrinth, & I actually failed to free the 30 spirits the event said I needed. Evidently it doesn't matter because the Corpse Supplier still spawned for me.

I am not trying to generate a strategy guide here. I actually hate strategy guides as a source of entertaining reading & opted for a general approach to what Ystra Labyrinth is. There's lots of details worth covering in future articles, but let this be an introduction to the zone. The labyrinth has content to keep you coming back from level 30 clear up to the level cap. The event, bosses & drops also keep players coming back throughout their game careers, & high-level players keep returning for special drops to make use of toward elite weapons, to farm the bosses, or as an alternate means of earning some gold. I don't think it is used  as much as it was since Runewaker added newer world events, but the labyrinth is still a fun place to go to.

Aesthetically, I am liking this world instance. It felt like a mix of a zone & an instance in one. I am liking the variety in mobs, every day quests & the layout of each area. The graphics appear a touch better than in lots of the other zones & instances. You don't feel restricted by any content-gates. The whole thing feels well designed. When you first go in, you may feel a bit confused as to what to do exactly, but that quickly gives way to enjoying the discovery of all the odd things there's to find & do as you quest.

It is simple to keep away from or miss this zone entirely because it is instanced off the beaten path & there are not lots of clear markers pointing players to it. In case you require to receive a hands-on look at it, don't forget that I will be exploring the labyrinth this Friday on MassivelyTV.

 

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