Gamer Monkey

BioWare finally sends apology for email blunder

Lifebane — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 22:28:00 +0000

In an effort to calm the angry masses of The Old republic fans out there in internet land, BioWare FINALLY got around to emailing their list of members again to retract the blunder that was made 2 days prior. It is sad to see that a company trying to hype their title up as much as BioWare has that they would have taken 2 days to send out a formal response to everyone who had received the previous emails which caused so much outrage 2 days ago. Below you can find the content of that retraction/explanation email:

“On September 29th, you received two emails regarding the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Game Testing Program. These emails were sent to you by mistake. This was due to an internal error and not the result of hacking or malware. Please be assured that no personal information was compromised. We are sorry for any confusion this may have caused. Please note that receipt of these e-mails does not affect your chances to be invited to test the game at a later date.

Between now and launch, we will be conducting additional large scale Beta Testing Weekends where we will be inviting more people than ever before. Additionally we will be releasing even more information about the game as we gear up for launch in December. If you haven’t signed up for game testing yet, you can still do so at www.swtor.com/tester.

Thank you for your understanding,The Star Wars: The Old Republic team.”

While it may seem utterly impossible to allow everyone access who was impacted into the beta it sure as heck would be nice to see some type of bone thrown at them for the annoying series of events surrounding this blunder and the lackluster response to it. If not a beta invite then perhaps an in game unique title for every player affected, “the Sucker” or “the Psyched” perhaps?

BioWare discovers how to anger the fans of The Old Republic!

Lifebane — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 04:02:54 +0000

In an unexpected and very annoying move, BioWare accidentally found the perfect way to anger their fan base for their upcoming MMORPG, The Old Republic. It seems that some clumsy intern or employee sent out a pair of emails over the past 12 hours that made many people who are anxiously waiting to get into the beta for this MMORPG believe that they had in fact made it in yet misplaced the invitation.

Here is the text from the first email received from BioWare (pretty pictures removed of course):

“Don’t Let The Adventure End Yet!

Now that you’ve had a chance to experience your own Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ saga, make sure you don’t miss out when the game launches. Pre-order* for Early Game Access and lock in your copy today.”

Based on the above email you would obviously think that you were in the beta but somehow perhaps misplaced the invitation since you had not in fact been playing the beta at all. Many people began frantically digging through their spam and deleted item folders desperately seeking that elusive beta invitation that went missing. Of course their efforts met with frustration but just when they thought that this was all just a mistake another email popped in shortly after the first one that stated the following:

“Tell Us What You Think
We hope you are enjoying participating in the Game Testing Program and want to thank you for helping shape the most anticipated MMO to date.

We’ve posted a fun short survey for game testers, and the results have been really interesting so far. Answer a few questions and see what your fellow testers are thinking. After the survey, hit the forums to talk about your experience or get gameplay tips.”

“Bam! This has to be confirmation that I am in fact in the beta, so back to hunting for that elusive invitation email again!” Well so people thought anyway. People started to compare notes and share their frustrations which inevitably led to a mass attack of gripes by disillusioned players on the Official Star Wars: The Old Republic forums. The enraged masses were so numerous that it literally took down the official forums for a time. The forums eventually cam back up and their was an official statement made by BioWare confirming the tragic mistake:

“Earlier today, two e-mails were sent to members of the Star Wars: The Old Republic community. These e-mails were sent to a larger group than intended, and have caused some confusion in the community. We can confirm that these e-mails were from EA and BioWare and apologize for any confusion they have caused. Please note that receiving these e-mails does not affect your chances to be invited to test the game. Thank you all for your understanding!”

Gee whiz! Many thanks for getting a million fans excited about the beta but then smashing their little digital dreams. Uncool to say the least folks. Not even a retraction style email for the folks who received the original two emails has been sent out yet which is poof form since not everyone follows the forums/fansites.

Rift: Ashes of History game trailer released!

Lifebane — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:11:44 +0000

A great trailer showcasing the changes coming with the 1.5 Patch for Rift is now available! Trion seems to be focusing on finding more things for players to do and giving them alternate advancement style rewards versus the over-played up the level cap route. Also of note, the focus is not on pleasing the raider subset of the player base so the changes are intended to satisfy the larger portion of the player base. It will be interesting to watch how Trion Worlds continues their game development for this title in upcoming patches.

The Old Republic will release with Achievement system

Lifebane — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:43:21 +0000

Daniel Erickson confirmed the release of The Old Republic with a first stage achievement system. They are taking a different tactic than some other MMO Developers in that they will release the achievement system in phases it seems. The first one will be for big heroic events/accomplishments. Later they will add the more traditional danced naked in the moonlight or whatever type of meaningless yet quirky achievements common in other titles right now. This is a summary from the folks over at Darth Hater:

“Achievements have made ship in fact. They’re not going to be the achievements, the crazy achievements that you have to place everywhere, that are like, “Hey if you drink 6 beers and fart in a cantina,” those are not going the achievements to go in. Version 1 of the achievement system which go in, which is actually doing big, heroic stuff, because there’s a ton of great optional content in The Old Republic, like, “Hey, I went to every world and kicked the world boss’s a$$.” Those kinds of achievements. That’s going to be the level one system. People need reasons to go back to planets and run around and do that other stuff, so that will come second. The first system is, “Hey, here’s my bragging rights, here’s the bad ass stuff I did in-game.”

Chronicles for Rift in 1.5 Update

Lifebane — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:36:39 +0000

Rift will have Chronicles in Patch 1.5… Yay?! What are Chronicle you ask? Chronicles are dungeons designed for only one or two players. You and a friend can experience what would previously only be Raid level content and story line but at a greatly toned down manner. You might actually consider it genius really to reuse the content already created for the raiding minority and give more casual players a chance to experience the graphic models, scenery, plot lines, etc. Basically churning out new content from the old content really. The rewards though are designed for characters that just hit 50 basically and will help them get geared up so that they are not easy roadkill in the expert instances like so many under-geared recently attained level 50 players are. Below is what Trion Worlds has to say about the Chronicles:

“Chronicles

Solo and duo dungeons
Chronicles are dungeons for one or two players. Experience Telara’s sweeping narrative in approachable, story-driven instances. Conquer endgame locations and live out world-changing adventures by yourself or with a friend.

Epic stories
The Chronicle of Attunement is a solo adventure available when you reach level 50, while the Chronicles in Greenscale’s Blight and Hammerknell will challenge two players, or truly test one (very) well-geared Ascended.

Chronicle of Attunement
Your faction honors your 50th level by throwing you a celebration! Begin the journey of Planar Attunement and battle the servants of Regulos!
Greenscale’s Blight
The Fallen Prince – Join legends from your faction like Shyla or the Faceless Man to take down Prince Hylas and Greenscale, Dragon of Life!
Hammerknell: Runes of Corruption
When the gates of Hammerknell finally opened, a small party vanished while investigating the horrors within. You must discover the fate of these scouts and of Hammerknell itself.”

The Old Republic Release Date Finally Announced!

Lifebane — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 13:29:01 +0000

It if official folks… We have a release date for BioWare’s upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic! The release date is December 20, 2011! Yes folks, this year, not pushed back to 2012 as many feared. Here is a quote from the announcement: “This is no Jedi mind trick. The most heavily anticipated MMO to date will launch on 12.20.2011.”

“The most heavily anticipated MMO” sounds a tad cocky though but whatever. The game definitely has a following so believe the hype. So prepare yourselves for some Xmas stocking stuffers and gifting for your gamer buddies, give the gift of The Old Republic, well if you don’t mind spending $ 59.99 for your buddy to get him a copy of The Old republic.

Below is the official announcement on their site:

BioWare and LucasArts are pleased to announce that Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ will launch on December 20, 2011 in North America and on December 22, 2011 in the European Launch Territories! The announcement was first made by BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk during their keynote address at the 2011 Eurogamer Expo in London, England. Speaking to a packed room of press and fans alike, Dr. Muzyka acknowledged the weight of the moment and the patience of the fans.

“This is an incredible moment for everyone at BioWare and our partners at LucasArts who have dedicated their lives to build this extraordinary game. We appreciate the patience from the millions of fans who have been waiting for the game’s release.”

Each copy of Star Wars: The Old Republic will come with 30 days of subscription time, after which you have the option to continue playing with one of the following monthly subscription fees:

1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99)
3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97)
6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94)

Those who have pre-ordered the game and entered their pre-order code on StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com are eligible for Early Game Access. If you haven’t yet reserved your copy of the game, be sure to visit our Pre-Order page and secure your place in the Old Republic now!

We want to thank you for your continued passion, dedication and support. Though one part of this incredible journey is coming to an end, we are confident that you all share our excitement for this new beginning. Be sure to check back to StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com as well as our Twitter and Facebook pages for all the latest news and updates on Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Rift Macros for dummies part 2: Handle your pet the lazy way.

Lifebane — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:55:31 +0000

Macros For Dummies: A Rift Guide for those who can’t really get it

Section 2: How Can I Handle My Pet The Lazy Way?
Prepared by Shazrad/Inoctious of Nephilim, Keenblade Server (Defiant)

Note: I have received some complaints about typos and misspelled words. As a dummies guide I feel that once in a while these things must be put in to keep the article readable by the intended audience. I am sorry if in your reading you find these things make you unhappy. I will eventually write a nice long dummies tutorial for dealing with “grammar police”. I hope that you will not read it so that those of us who are not perfect can outwit you at your own game” Uncle Shaz

So you have mastered section 1. Now you’re asking yourself “Uncle Shaz is that all you can show me”? Well of course not! Your Uncle Shaz has LOADS of information all stored in one highly attractive male body! Now Uncle Shaz is going to help you with something difficult. Well you keep getting yelled at like this “HEY DUMMY your pet is on the wrong MOB”. Or my personal favorite “You should put pet on passive”. And I know what you’re thinking, “If I put my pet on passive how will it attack”. Another favorite response I get is “Uncle Shaz, I am too lazy to click that attack button all the time”. Well kiddies, Uncle Shaz has the solution for you!! ALL you have to do to deal with that pet and its nasty habit of hitting the wrong stuff is add some pet specific commands to the macro that control it for you. For the sake of this discussion we are going to use Uncle Shaz’s “Lazy Cleric Single Target DPS Macro” (Yes it has a pet, no it’s not a fairy). To the right of each command I will explain what it does. It is as follows:

#show combined effort (Makes the macro have a specific spell icon.)
suppressmacrofailures (Makes “You can only have one spell in a macro” go away)
petattack (This tells your pet to attack your target cast)
Combined Effort (Casts a spell)
cast Lightning Hammer (Casts a spell)
cast Eruption of Life (Casts a spell)
cast Bombard (Casts a spell)
cast Sanction Heretic (Casts a spell)
cast Massive Blow (Casts a spell)
cast Fervent Strike (Casts a spell)
petcast Enraged Assault (This makes your pet do one of its abilities)
petcast Satyr Sweep (This makes your pet do one of its abilities)
cast Jolt (Casts a spell)
cast Fae Hammer (Casts a spell)
cast Fated Blow (Casts a spell)
cast Glory of the Chosen (Casts a spell)
cast Vex (Casts a spell)

Now you see the little word “petattack” in the macro. Your asking yourself “Can Uncle Shaz spell”? Of course I can! Lots of Rift commands are words jumbled together. This is perfectly natural. Perhaps the designers wanted to use less space in their coding (The magic stuff that makes games work. I refuse to explain it and recommend you put in a ticket in-game and ask a nice game master to explain it. Ask for specific details especially regarding binary, hex, and C++). Now as to the matter of what “petattack” does, Uncle Shaz has the answer!! This command tells the pet to attack whatever you are targeting. Put your pet on passive. Now it won’t run around all over the place.

The second two strange things are called “petcast” I know I know. These guys who made Rift LOVE to cram words together. DON’T WORRY! This is intended. now these commands tell the pet to do a specific ability.

The way you make these little guys work is as follows:

Summon your pet.
Write down its combat abilities.(Those little things with the glowing squares on your pet bar).
Add them to your spiffy 1 button DPS macro like the “petattack ability”.

The word “ability” is the name of one of those things I just told you to write down.

NOTE: Do not use the commands “follow”, “stay” “aggressive” , “passive” or “guard” these will make your pet do bad things.

OK now I’m hoping that you have done this correctly. If you have done this it will make sure that your pet will always have its abilities being used in the most efficient manner. Your pet is now as idiot proof as it can be given the mental capacity of the device between the keyboard and your chair.

Now that was an awesome section wasn’t it? You can’t wait for part 3 can you? What could it be about? WAIT AND SEE!!

DC Universe Online Update 5 hits the test servers!

Lifebane — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:23:02 +0000

The Dev’s over at SOE have released their game update 5 to the test servers for player testing and critique no doubt. They give us a dose of updates for PVP, Raids, Alerts, and the inevitable power adjustments (aka Power nerfs and buffs). Read below for the details of this Game Update.

“New Features Update 5:

New Alert! – The HIVE Moon Base Alert is now available as a Tier 2 Hard Mode. Look for it under Alerts: Hard T2 in your On Duty menu.
New Raid! – Enter the Fortress of Solitude and defeat The Avatar of Meta! Look for Fortress of Solitude: The Avatar of Meta under Raids in your On Duty menu.
New PVP Arena! – Players can now battle against each other in a simulation of The Batcave. Look for The Batcave (2 vs. 2) under Arenas: PVP in your On Duty menu.
Dueling! – Use the Action menu to challenge another player or turn on Dueling Mode and allow anyone to challenge you. For players who don’t want to participate you can turn off Duel invites in the action menu.

General:

Workers have installed new stations in each deck of the JLA Watchtower. They are still inoperative, and their functionality has been deemed classified by the JLA. Worry over leaks to the Society have kept them very tight-lipped on these new stations.
JLA Watchtower: Batman has flown the Batwing back to The Batcave, and S.T.A.R. Labs has recalled their ships to the home office for maintenance.
Fixed a number of known PC and PS3 crashes.
Improved performance in the Fortress of Solitude Raid.
Fixed an issue where sometimes players could not see each other while grouped.
STAR weapons from the Fight for the Light DLC pack will no longer add the same style twice when you get an Epic and Rare version.
Players can now be invited back to an instance by a group even if they have the deserter flag.
Group members should now always display on your Mini Map.
Hard Lock targeting should now disappear when the target has become friendly.
Players should no longer be able to become stuck inside static playroom objects.
Faction Emblems can no longer be traded.
Raid sort order in the On Duty tab has been improved.
Corrected an issue with certain loot-only appearances displaying in character create.
Angelic and Remora Set appearance items should now be dropping correctly.
Starfire, Cyborg and Donna Troy have had their powers and tactics improved.

Audio:

Fixed an issue that would cause audio loss.
Lair of the Witch: Bamboo potted plants should now have sound when destroyed.
The music for combat and traps within the Fortress of Solitude PVP Arena should now play properly.
Audio levels have been updated for Dual Pistols.
- Players using Dual Pistols should not notice a significant difference.
- Audio balance for players around a Dual Pistol player should be noticeably better now.
Audio levels will no longer increase after playing certain sounds.
Villain hangouts now have new style-appropriate music!
Fortress of Solitude: Fixed minor audio issues with some of Krypto’s attacks.
Riddle Me This: Audio for the final riddle should now play correctly.
EMPty Parts: Technician Morgan should no longer be so quiet when spoken to for this side quest.
Bludhaven Alert: Hazmat Officer Severson should now be more audible.
The Super Plan: Superman and Lex Luthor should be easier to hear during this boss fight.
Trigon’s Blood: Fixed a minor issue with objects not playing sound when destroyed in this playroom.
Coast City Alert: Music should now start up correctly after defeating Kyle Rayner.
Coast City Duo: Music should now loop properly in this duo.
Metropolis City Hall: Added new music to the Boss Encounters, and corrected issues that may have been causing music to drop out in the level.
Fun for Girls and Boys: Players should now correctly hear sound when passing through rings during the transport race.
Arkham Asylum Alert: Poison Ivy should now always speak after being defeated.
Storming the Ivory Tower: Powergirl and Parasite’s Voice Over should no longer overlap during this final fight.
Party Foul: Sound should now cue properly during the cool cam.

UI:

General:

Players should no longer be able to select a queue while at the Legends Character Selection screen.
Players should now be able to modify the transparency of their UI.
PVP match scorecards should now read “Influence” for Villains at the end of a match.
PC Only: Pressing the “End” key while in the group queue should no longer cause controller icons to appear.
Players now have the ability to reset their key bindings to default.
The Chat options menu should now scroll correctly when adding a new chat tab.

Social:

Character interactions on names consisting only of numbers will now function properly.

Options:

PC Only: Toggle PDA (Backslash) now appears in the Key Bindings page.

Journal:

The Track button in the Quest Journal should now always display properly.
Communicator videos displaying in all white have been fixed.

Voice:

Proximity voice chat will start enabled if you previously turned it on.

Marketplace:

The Superman Hoodie can no longer be deleted from your inventory after being redeemed.

Missions:
General:

Invasion: Gotham: This Mission is now correctly labeled as a group mission.
All Side Missions should now be flagged as shareable with other players.
Playroom endings have been reorganized so Communicator Messages and Motion Comics do not interfere with each other.

Solo:

Batsignal: T.O. Morrow’s Coolcam Voice Over should now queue at the proper moment.
Riddle Me This: Players should no longer be able to advance in this playroom without solving all riddles.
Something’s Fishy: Martian Manhunter’s initial camera should now match the duration of his line of voiceover.
Cape Carmine Lighthouse: Players should no longer get stuck in combat in this instance.
Hospital Havok: Lex Luthor’s escaped test subjects can once again be transported to the LexCorp Ship for further experimentation.
Meta Malpractice: Heroes should once again be able to help patients escape around Metropolis General.
Trigon’s Destiny: John Bolaris has returned to the Tomorrow District to give his quest again.
Temple of Crime: Improved drop rate of Batwoman’s Serrated Cape in the Temple of Crime.
Apes of Wrath: Evolved Gorilla Form’s special attacks now have proper names.
Storming the Ivory Tower: Female Students will now complain of being hungry before consuming their classmates.
Lunar Eclipse: Players should no longer have gating issues during the Zatanna portion of the boss fight.
Spectral Embrace: Telekinesis will work on more objects in the Spectre Playroom.
Spectral Embrace: Green barrels in the Spectre playroom can now be destroyed.
Daily Dose of Heroism: Heroes should now receive credit for stopping the Satellite Saboteur.
No Meta Human Left Behind: KO icons should now show up on all available Meta-Human Tubes in the instance.
The Demon Inside: Players should no longer remain in combat after defeating Raven.
Vengeful Embrace: Spectre no longer drops loot, whereas Eclipso will now drop loot.

Challenge Mode:
Catwoman Challenge:

Pipes in the gas tunnels have had their collision restored.
Various environment fixes have been made.
Players should no longer be able to drop out of combat during the miniboss and boss fights.

DUOS:

Coast City:

The Repulsor should no longer affect player pets.

Gorilla Grodd’s Lab:

Fuel cell barrels now use the proper fuel cell appearance rather than appearing as a normal red explosion barrel.

Gotham Mercy Hospital:

Fixed an issue inside this playroom which caused ice blocks to look incorrect when damaged
Fixed an issue where the lights in the playroom, when damaged, were displaying incorrect FX.

Gotham Museum:

Panthers should now be able to reach players with less difficulty.

Gotham University:

Mummies will no longer float when their encasement is broken.
Minor visual improvements to the interior of Gotham University.

Metropolis City Hall:

The effects on Sinestro’s push attack have been updated.
Hero players should now be able to find a treasure chest.
Attacks from Green Lantern Recruits should now properly display in the combat log.

Old Gotham Subway:

The Penguin has changed out his umbrella and there is some new weaponry at his disposal! The new ammunition does more damage but sacrifices some of the concussive force that knocked you around his lair. –This change is already live. Our apologies for not including it in our hotfix public notes.

ALERTS:
General

Players should now always receive the final Communicator message when successfully completing Alerts

Ace Chemicals:

Players now have more time to enter the main chamber before the doors close and the first security wave event begins.

Area 51:

Completing Area 51 in Hard Mode should no longer loot-lock you for Area 51 in normal mode, and vice versa.
Interceptors in Area 51 should no longer try to burrow into the ground.

Arkham Asylum:

Minor pathing issues in the Mr. Freeze Boss fight area have been corrected.
Charmed Doctors and Inmates now have extended range when defending the Poison Ivy wing.
Poison Ivy and Scarecrow’s voiceovers should no longer play on top of one another.
Players should no longer get stuck in certain areas of this playroom.
Various collision and art improvements.

Batcave: The Outer Caverns:

The loot lock for this Alert is now set to one day.

HiVE Moon Base:

The domes over the HIVE ships in the third portion of the Alert should now always be blue.
Various minor environment improvements have been made to this Alert.

League of Assassins Stronghold:

Feat: Declawed: Players will now get credit for all the Claws they defeat.

Oan Sciencells:

Lyssa Drak’s attacks have been improved.
Lyssa Drak is no longer attackable until the book is closed and she begins her assault.
The Light Claw ability should now appear correctly in the combat log.
Minor environment improvements have been done to improve this Alert.

Oolong Island:

T.O. Morrow has upgraded the Robot Control Nodes around the Elementical Laboratories!
Players should no longer be able to see under the exploding floor in Chang Tzu’s Lab.
A mini map marker has been added when players are instructed to speak with TO Morrow.
Fixed an issue where the Tornado Tyrant would repeat one voiceover line over and over.
The electrical trap in the hallway of Chang Tzu’s Lab should no longer show through the roof of the Lab.

Smallville:

Lady Doombringer will now remain sequestered until the invading players trap all five of her clergy.
Ending Communicator message and this Alert’s Motion Comic should no longer interfere with each other.
Healers should now see the back piece for the Seraph appearance set drop in this Alert.

RAIDS:
Batcave: The Outer Caverns :

Players should now see proper loot lock messaging in this Raid.
Made a number of environment improvements in this instance.
Players should no longer be able to get stuck in terrain in certain locations of this instance.
Players will now receive the final Communicator Message after each successful run.

Batcave: Brainiac Sub-Construct:

Players should now hear Brainiac’s voiceover at the end of the Avatar of Tech fight.
Fixed a minor issue with water effects.

Fortress of Solitude: The Chasm:

Several previously un-resistible effects have been made resistible.
Adjusted the entry of the Retrievers so that they would be less likely to miss their jump and fall into the chasm.
Not a Dog Person feat will now be granted when you defeat the Sunstone Domineer without freeing Krypto from his control.
The Domineer’s escorts no longer ignore players at range in movement modes.
Players should no longer be shown as off the mini map area.
Various minor art and collision tweaks were made to this Raid.
Players with Super Strength should now see weaponizable boulders glow, indicating that they can be picked up.

PVP:
General:

Player’s summoned pets should now reliably attack opposing players during PvP
An Influence reward has been added to the PvP Bounty quests in Gotham City and Metropolis.
The Bow of Discipline is now available to purchase from the Tier 2 PvP vendor.

Legends:

Corrected an issue preventing Harley Quinn from gaining access to the ranged tap Block Breaker.
Fixed a minor effects issue with the Legends Two-Face’s “Twisted Minds” ability.

Fortress of Solitude Arena:

The Fortress of Solitude Arena is now available when queuing with the first available button. It also has the chance to be the daily rotation.
New effects were added for Player Power-Ups.
Crystals now have new effects when thrown or smashed.
Power Core effects can no longer be seen through the floor of the second level.

Races:

Music should now always play properly during a race.
Unique audio stingers should now play when finishing a race and collecting a Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze Trophy.

Feats:

The following feat descriptions were fixed to have the correct amounts required for completion: Fistful of Cash, Knocked Out or Alive, My Backpack’s Got Jets.
Walking Rampart, Commanding Presence, and Surgeon General are role based feats, and will now only show in the UI if you can complete them.
Alert Master (complete 100 Alerts) and Emergency Responder (complete 250 Alerts) now give the proper amount of skill points.
Fire Sale!: Players should now see the book cases on fire.
Fire Sale!: Fixed an issue that was creating playroom performance issues for Perils of Zatanna.
The Formal legs in character create will now count towards completion of the feat Shaken, Not Stirred for female characters as it does for male characters.
The following feats are now granted when completing a Tier 2 armor set regardless of origin:
Spear of Themyscira
Defender of Gotham
Gauntlet of the Goddess
LexCorp Warbringer
The Joke’s on You
Kryptonian Defender
Fixed an issue where certain feats weren’t being counted in the Fortress of Solitude 8v8 PVP map.
Hostile Takeover
Capture Master
Capture Expert
Capture Rookie
Assistance Is Not Futile
Assist Master
Assist Expert
Assist Rookie
10X Under Fire!
25X Under Fire!
Attack the Weak Point for Massive Damage
High Rolling Healer
Arena Master

Collections/Investigations:

The style reward for the Hidden Fortress brief is now appropriately named and wearable as a mask.
Fixed a number of spawn locations in Robinson Park and Otisburg.
Collection nodes in Hard Mode Alerts are now working properly and drop collection items.

Weapons:

General:

The Spiritwalker Blaster now has the correct icon.
The Intergang Plasma Rifle now displays the icon and style name correctly.
The Apokoliptian Mega-Rifle now properly displays its icon and style name.

Bow:

Visual effects for Explosive Shot will display more consistently now.
Impact Arrow effects should no longer travel with the player after the combo.
Impact Arrow now properly interrupts sustained attacks.
Adjusted the effects timing for the Bow ability Long Draw to look better.

Dual Wield:

Dual Wield Stunning Swipe now hits multiple targets as intended.

Hand Blast:

The Hand Blaster trait Power Discharged has been fixed so that it now contributes to your combo counter, and will hit the correct amount of times.
The Hand Blast abilities Charged Blast, Meteor Blast and Solar Flame are now correctly dealing block breaker damage.

Martial Arts:

Removed the Martial Arts Air Axe-kick combo.

Staff:

Staff Downward Smash combo now hits multiple targets as intended.
Adjusted the knockdown angle inflicted by Staff Downward Smash combo so enemies are not knocked too far to continue your combo

Two Handed:

Changed the tooltip for the Two-Handed ability Mega Smash to reflect that it is not vulnerable to interrupt as intended.

Powers:

General:

Controller Role power over time effects have been changed from returning a base of 14 power per second over 22 seconds to returning 70 power every 5 seconds over 25 seconds. This will allow you to see a Power restoration increase for roughly every 14 points of Vitalization gained, instead of requiring roughly 71 points of Vitalization to see an increase.
Taunt effects on Tank role powers should now consistently use a 15m radius either around your target or yourself depending on the activated power, rather than varying wildly to as little as 7m.
When in Tank role, Supercharge abilities will now cause a taunt effect around your target or yourself depending on the supercharge ability used.

Players should no longer be able to bypass the button hold portion of charge attack combos by blocking.
Reduced the amount of hate generated by a Controller’s controlling abilities.

Fire:

Burning Determination now provides one instant tick of healing when used, it no longer scales its healing based on your health. It sets nearby enemies on fire on use and increases your maximum health by an additional 25% in the Tank role (health bonus does not stack with Backdraft or Stoke Flames).
Stoke Flames now no longer requires Immolation effects to have maximum effectiveness. It sets nearby enemies on fire on use and increases your maximum health by an additional 25% in Tank role (health bonus does not stack with Backdraft or Stoke Flames).
Fixed an issue that could cause Stoke Flames to fail to taunt enemies.
Fire tank secondary health buffs should no longer occasionally bleed over to group members.
Adjusted Absorb Heat’s FX to play properly.

Gadgets:

Gadgets Stasis Field now causes damage over time and additional damage when the encase breaks. While in the Controller role you will encase two targets.
Gadgets Defibrillator now applies a personal Might and Precision buff for a short time.
The effects of Sticky Bomb will now more reliably hit your target.

Ice:

Ice Reflection in Tank role now caps its damage prevention effect to 10000.
Corrected an issue that prevented the Frostbite effect from Encasing enemies.
Ice Armor will now respect a characters gender regardless of any current form changes.
Increased the cool down and capped the amount of damage that can be prevented from Reflection when used in the Damage role.

Mental:

Thought Bubble now causes damage over time and additional damage when the encase breaks. While in the Controller role you will encase two targets.
Mental Psychic Empowerment now applies a personal Might and Precision buff for a short time.
The de-buff icon for Horrific Visage will now display as a Health de-buff instead of a Precision de-buff.

Nature:

Canine Form attacks and interactions no longer lack audio.
The tooltip for the Nature ability Savage Growth has been changed for clarity.

Sorcery:

The Summon Watcher Sorcery ability has had its description changed to more accurately reflect what it does in different roles.

Iconic Powers:

Updated description for Neo-Venom Boost in an effort to alleviate confusion.

Light:

Corrected an issue with Chain Whip that prevented resisting the non-combo version in Control role.
Fan should no longer end abruptly if your primary target is Knocked Out.
While in Damage role, the damage buff from Snap Trap and Light Blast should no longer fall off after Five seconds.
Spikequake should now cause the correct damage to secondary targets.
Light Weight should now apply its damage debuff to your primary target at the beginning of the spin attack.
Removed the Power cost from chainsaw melee hold.
Boxing’s description no longer incorrectly states that it has a hold melee combo.

Visuals:

Nature Bow Players should now have proper effects on first melee strike.
Fixed an issue where dancers in the Nightclubs were popping between animations.
Player characters when attacked in a non-combat idle should no longer have their weapons disappear.
Prismatic Broadsword should no longer cause distortion on the player.
Fixed minor cosmetic issues with the Kabuki Helm.
Sector Incendiary Helmet should no longer cause animal skin characters to lose their tails.
Android Batman’s Cowl, Brother Blood’s Sinister Hood, Captain Marvel Raid Helmet, and Brother Eye’s Helm of the OMAC Centurion should no longer cause display issues with animal skinned characters.
The Star Helmet should no longer cause Female characters to lose their noses.
Authoritarian’s Hat should no longer display incorrectly with certain hairstyles.
Fixed a minor visual issue with the Avatar Bombardier Helmet.
Amun’s Hieroglyph Sash should no longer display incorrectly on Monarch and Mesa Female body types.
Formal Shirt style should now display properly on Monarch and Mesa Female body types.
Druid Shirt style should now display properly on female models wearing briefs.
The Necromancer Cape should now fit properly on all body types.
Lion Tooth Juju should now display correctly.
Made various minor environment improvements and collision fixes in Gotham City and Metropolis.
Fixed a minor issue with the Biosphere room door in the S.T.A.R. Labs Alert.
Made minor art updates in the Burnley Nightclub, Midtown Nightclub and the Tap Room.
The Demon Inside: Fixed issue with floating terminals, various environment issues.
Testing 1,2,3: Fixed an issue with collision on the columns inside this playroom.
As seen from the JLA Watchtower, the Earth has atmosphere and clouds again.
Various environment fixes inside the JLA Watchtower.
TheJLA Tech Wing inside the JLA Watchtower is a bit brighter now in areas of interest.
Made various environment updates in Coast City.
Hall of Doom: Collision on the villain mailbox has been updated to prevent players from getting stuck in them.
Various minor art improvements made to the Hall of Doom.
Reign of Blood: Fixed an issue with collision on the floor in this playroom.
Primal Rage: Fixed an environment collision issue in this playroom.
Tortured Titans!: The boss room should no longer contain a cage with no chain support.
Police stations: Lighting fixes in both Metropolis and Gotham City.
Superman’s Doom: Minor environment improvements inside this playroom.
Minor collision and environment fixes inside S.T.A.R. Labs Alert.
The Super Plan: Villains taking on the mission will now be treated to a much more damaged and destroyed version of the JLA Watchtower.
Indestructible plants have been removed from the Magic Shop Lobby.
Various art and collision improvements made in Oolong Island Alert.
Various art and collision improvements inside Monarch Playing Card Factory.
Fixed an issue in Kahndaq with vases that would incorrectly display when damaged.
Owns Blood: Fixed minor issue with weaponizable objects not appearing correctly when interacted with.
In Limbo: Items on shelves in this playroom will now get destroyed when the shelves are destroyed.
Giganta Girl: Minor art improvements inside this playroom.
Trigon’s Blood: Minor environment art improvements inside this playroom.
Spectral Embrace: Minor environment art improvements inside this playroom.
Fixed an ear issue for all animal skins with Aerial Defender Helmet and Crystalline Helm of the Defender.”

Planar Attunement coming for Rift in 1.5

Lifebane — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:11:39 +0000

Trion Worlds sent out their latest customer communication email today and the topic for Rift is the upcoming Planar Attunement feature. This is basically just a rehashed version of AA (Alternate Advancement) systems found in other popular MMORPG’s on the market right now. This allows the folks that have reached max level (Currently level 50) to continue to grow in power through the purchase of these Planar Attunement abilities. Realistically speaking though, it is another reason to keep folks playing and grinding away at the XP bar since you will need to earn the “points” to buy these abilities.

Below is a text summary of what the email was about minus all the pretty pictures. You can see more details at Trion’s Rift site.

“When it comes to empowering your Ascended, level 50 is just the beginning. Planar Attunement lets you upgrade your character with bonuses and abilities, surpassing even the final level in RIFT™.

Your level-50 characters will keep earning experience for kills, Chronicles, dungeons and raids, exploring, questing, and fighting invasions. Every Planar Attunement level grants you points to spend on one of six grids of planar powers, so you can:

Improve your most important stats.

Master your weapons and cast more potent spells.

Maximize your effectiveness against the planes and their denizens, making their strength your own.

Open rifts to planes of your choosing, influencing how the dynamic war for Telara will unfold!

Ride faster, reduce falling damage, and much more!”

DC Universe Online goes Free to Play, is Vanguard next?

Lifebane — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:00:41 +0000

John Smedley, SOE President announced that Their hero themed MMORPG DC Universe Online will be going free to play at the end of October! This move is not surprising when you consider that SOE has already been delving into free to play models with other games in their lineup and games from other developers out on the market are already riding that particular bandwagon. When Smedley was asked by the folks over at Massively about whether or not all SEO games would be going the free to play route he had the following to say:

“The statement I would make is that we view free-to-play as the future, and we’re very interested in it and excited about it. I’m leaving a little bit of room there because business models evolve over time. You can look for some announcements about current games in the future, and we’re really looking closely at it. We like the model.”

Based on this statement, it is not out of the question to think that perhaps they will try to salvage their downward spiraling fantasy MMORPG title Vanguard by going Free to Play as well. Smedley did say “You can look for some announcements about current games in the future” so perhaps this is a ray of hope for Vanguard players.

In the meantime folks, if you haven’t gotten your fix yet of DC Universe Online, then perhaps the end of October will be your chance to give it a whirl. One thing that I hope that SOE does NOT do when they go free to play is excessively penalize the players that have been paying to play (purchased the game at the full retail price, been paying ongoing monthly subscription fees, etc. by limiting what they can use from the things they already obtained when they come back to the game and try the free to play model after taking a hiatus. Champions Online went a similar route as DC Universe Online is heading down now with free to play and making it so that long time paying players could no longer use their existing characters due to costume selection, power sets, etc. was a low blow and hindered the success of that particular free to play migration. Learn from your competitors mistakes SOE!

You can see the full details here of their new free to play model.

Rift Veteran Rewards revealed!

Lifebane — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:00:12 +0000

Trion Worlds hit MMORPG released much awaited information on their veterans reward program. Below is a description of their rewards and the frequency in which you will earn these spiffy prizes. Looks and functionality… you can’t go wrong!

“Get rewards as you play RIFT™

Veteran Ascended are immortal, unstoppable, and—as of Update 1.5—showered with gifts. You’ll have access to new rewards every time you hit a reward milestone in RIFT.

Earn a Guardian or Defiant guard uniform for your wardrobe, and that’s only the beginning! – Learn More

Rewards:

1 Month

Sanctuary Guard’s Helm
Centurion’s Helm

3 Months

Sanctuary Guard’s Pauldrons
Centurion’s Pauldrons

6 Months

Personal Vendor
Buy and sell anywhere in Telara!
Sanctuary Guard’s Cuirass
Centurion’s Cuirass

12 Months

Sanctuary Guard’s Gauntlets*
Sanctuary Guard’s Greaves*
Sanctuary Guard’s Sabatons*
Centurion’s Gauntlets*
Centurion’s Greaves*
Centurion’s Sabatons*
Drinks for level 10-50*

18 Months

Mobile Mailbox – send and receive your important parcels anywhere!
Tricorne of the Drowned Thief*
Endless Skull Helm*

* you can purchase these items off of your handy-dandy 6 Month Veteran Reward, the Personal Vendor.

GET YOUR REWARDS SOONER!

A multi-month subscription will get all the rewards for that time up front. Six months of game time gets you three guard uniform pieces and a personal vendor all at once.

Of course, your prior subscription time counts for determining rewards.

UPDATE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION NOW“

Group play and other details for The Secret World

Lifebane — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 14:25:02 +0000

Joel Bylos, lead content designer over at Funcom, recently spoke to the folks over at Electric Playground about Funcom’s promising new MMORPG title The Secret World currently under development. Joel spoke about group play within The Secret World and is quoted as saying that “We really feel that an MMO is a shared experience, right? It’s very important that people work together to solve these problems. That’s the greatest sort of feeling of achievement: when you work together with other people to overcome something.”

Single groups will be limited to up to 5 players, raids will be up to 10 players. You can form Cabals for larger and long-term social interaction. Cabals in this game are simply guilds with a fancy title that fits the conspiracy/mystery theme which this game is built around. Of particular interest was news regarding the historic Holy Trinity of MMORPGs where every group MUST have a healer, a tank and a DPS character to succeed. The rest of the group is often not even required or at least nowhere near as important as the big three. Funcom is taking The Secret World in a different direction in this respect. Joel actually states that you can get away with a group full of only tanks for example and still successfully complete group content thanks to available self-heal abilities. This is a big step away from the traditional and popular MMORPGs currently on the market and will please many a player.

Joel also mentioned having “puzzles” built into the game that will require cooperation of players to complete. It sounds interesting but the details were vague to say the least.