pve posts

Wings Over Atreia: Killed by a Carebear

by Jef Reahard Mar 15th 2010 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, PvP, PvE, Opinion, Wings Over Atreia

A bridge lay ahead, shrouded by mist, the scorched black ground of the path through Morheim crunching under the Sorcerer's pounding feet. He sprinted, red-brown robes swirling this way and that, the sound of his heavy breathing drowned out by the clink clash clatter of the Cleric running beside him in a suit of silvery chain armor. Voices behind them now, drawing closer, the sound of dozens of wings beat the air.

The pair risked a glance behind before edging cautiously onto the bridge. They turned back 'round to stare up into the red-eyed glare of a towering Asmodian, his legs planted shoulder width apart, clenched fists giving off a fiery pale orange glow. The mist parted around him and he seemed to grow taller; he raised one fist and loosed a bolt that wrapped itself around the Cleric's ankles, snaring her with a greenish growth that snaked about her legs and pinned her to the path. She traded a glance with the Sorcerer and turned up the corner of her mouth, nodding toward the edge of the bridge. The Sorcerer didn't hesitate, he leapt into space, free-falling for a moment before a great white pair of wings sprouted from his back in a noisy rush of feathers and wind.

Continued after the jump.

Tags: aion, featured, ncsoft, pve, pvp, Wings-Over-Atreia

The Daily Grind: How do you like to play?

by Eliot Lefebvre Mar 11th 2010 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, PvP, PvE, Opinion, The Daily Grind

We complain that MMOs are getting narrower and smaller as time goes by, with terms like "themeparks" being thrown around without much affection. But there are still a lot of ways to enjoy yourself in pretty much every game under the sun and games that cater to a wide variety of playstyles on top of that. There are games focused on a strong PvP game (Warhammer Online, EVE Online), games with a focus on PvE content (City of Heroes, Lord of the Rings Online), and others with a split between both (World of Warcraft, Guild Wars).

Even within that wide spectrum, however, there's a fair variety of options. You could focus on the PvE game in EVE Online if you wanted, or even just head off into another direction like roleplaying if you so desired. With all the different ways to enjoy yourself, we ask you today: how do you like to play? Do you prefer PvP, PvE, a mix of both? Or do you prefer alternate progression like crafting or exploration, eschewing the rails that are set down for you by the development team?

Tags: city-of-heroes, coh, content, eve, eve-online, guild-wars, gw, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, play-focus, playstyle, pve, pvp, roleplaying, tdg, the-daily-grind, war, warhammer-online, world-of-warcraft, wow

EVE Evolved: What could planetary interaction be like?

by Brendan Drain Feb 21st 2010 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Game mechanics, PvP, PvE, Opinion, EVE Evolved

On Friday, CCP released the first details of EVE Online's next expansion, Tyrannis. The expansion's main feature is a form of planetary exploration and control but details on what exactly that will entail have been limited. Like walking in stations, planetary interaction has always been a major missing component from EVE. It's been on the drawing board from day one but the technology and resources were never really there to do the feature justice. A prototype planetary flight system was even demonstrated at EVE Fanfest 2004 and while it impressed Fanfest attendees, the feature never materialised. The announcement that Tyrannis will include a form of planetary exploration has a lot of players excited but is their enthusiasm justified? The information we have so far on the expansion is limited to a single devblog, which provides only a general mission statement for the expansion.

In the absence of further information, I find myself wondering what the planetary interaction in Tyrannis might be like. In this speculative opinion piece, I look over the information we know for sure about Tyrannis and go on to speculate on what it might be like.

Tags: ccp, ccp-eve, ccp-games, dust, dust-514, eve, eve-ccp, eve-evolved, eve-mmorpg, eve-online, expansion, expansions, exploration, featured, opinion, planet, planets, pve, pvp, speculation, tyrannis

Hi-Rez fleshes out their plans for Global Agenda, includes open world MMO zone

by Seraphina Brennan Feb 16th 2010 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, MMORTS, Global Agenda

Last we heard, Hi-Rez Studios was considering adding more "open" mission areas around Dome City, giving players an open-world feel to their game. Well, Hi-Rez's Erez Goren stopped by the forums on Saturday to lay out the full plans for not only the areas outside of Dome City, but also for some new weapons appearing in the game, new maps in AvA, and new options to help agencies compete and hold ground in AvA. All of this is scheduled on a very ambitious timetable -- available by the end of March. If certain features become pushed back or delayed, Hi-Rez will also reconsider extending their current "free subscription" policy.

However, it was surprising to find that the open-world areas mentioned in the last newsletter literally will be open world areas. Multiple mission teams and players will find themselves on one gigantic map, completing PvE and PvP objectives for experience and loot. Missions on these maps will be for a varied number of players, starting out at the solo player and going all the way up to a 10 man strikeforce. And, of course, some areas of the map will be "unsafe" and open for agents to beat on other agents. Now you too can gank in Global Agenda.

Tags: alliance-vs-alliance, ava, crafting, epic-items, erez-goren, game-design, global-agenda, hi-rez-studios, item-stats, map-types, mmo, open-world, pve, pvp, rare-items

Massively's tour of Mini Fighter

by Eliot Lefebvre Feb 15th 2010 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Game mechanics, PvP, PvE, Free-to-play, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on

In my heart, I really want to like fighting games. And I do, at that, but just like we have to accept at some point that we're never going to become a rock god outside of our living room, I have to accept that I'm just not good at them. At some point my responses to what's happening on the screen fall into hopeless flailing, and I'm left watching my opponent's combo number going into scientific notation.

So while on a recent developer tour of Mini Fighter, I got to see a lot of my character winding up and performing some bone-shattering attacks on a target that would have been obliterated, had they not moved approximately ten minutes ago. But it was hard to get upset by that, because the game was pretty unambiguously fun despite my inherent lack of skill. The game is currently in Open Beta, but it already has a lot of polish and a lot of neat features to make it well worth playing. Skip past the cut for the details on the game and our time with it.

Tags: developer-tour, dungeons, f2p, fighter, fighting-games, free-to-play, game-modes, mini-fighter, minigames, netmarble, pve, pvp

Global Agenda extends free time from launch, commits to new features in coming months

by Seraphina Brennan Feb 11th 2010 at 10:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, MMORTS, Global Agenda

"We want to earn your subscription."

Those are the words spoken by Todd Harris in today's Global Agenda newsletter just before he revealed the upcoming features and additions being made to the action-based MMORTS shooter... game... hybrid... thing.

To show their commitment, the studio will be extending their free subscription period from the end of February all the way to the end of March while they make more tweaks and enhancements to the game. By the end of February players will have the ability to select the PvP match types they want to play from the mission select feature (as it was in Closed Beta,) and Hi-Rez Studios will be introducing an in-game friends/ignore list -- one of the game's most requested features. More AvA zones will also be added, giving Oceanic players and European players some territory to fight over during their prime play times.

Tags: alliance-vs-alliance, breaking, conquest, global-agenda-conquest, hi-rez-studios, infiltration, no-subscription-extension, open-area-missions, pve, pvp

The Daily Grind: What made it click?

by Eliot Lefebvre Feb 9th 2010 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind

There's almost always a moment. If you're interested in MMOs beyond just enjoying the game while you play it -- and truth be told, if you're reading Massively you pretty well qualify -- then there was most likely a single experience you had somewhere along the line that convinced you these games were special and interesting. Something beyond just a diversion you could take or leave. There was something the game that made you sit up and say that you were experiencing something unique, something that may or may not be commonplace these days but seemed new and fresh at the time.

Perhaps it was the first time you took part in a major PvP battle. Perhaps it was your first struggle against a difficult monster in PvE, realizing that you actually had other real people at your side fighting the monster. It could have been the first time you crafted something you were proud of, or even just a close friend you made in the game that you wouldn't have met otherwise. Today, we're asking you what moment in an MMO first made the whole idea click for you. And for bonus points, looking back on it now, does it seem like you were excited over something silly, or does it still feel unique?

Tags: epiphany, moment-of-truth, pve, pvp, social, tdg, the-daily-grind, unique-experience

Massively's Black Prophecy Q&A: Mission Systems

by James Egan Feb 1st 2010 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Interviews, New titles, PvP, Quests, PvE, Massively Interviews, Black Prophecy

Massively has been following the development of the sci-fi MMO Black Prophecy very closely, and was pleased that the title's developer Reakktor Media wanted to do a series of focused Q&As with us on several aspects of the game. Our last such Q&A started at the beginning with character creation, but in our second installment of the Black Prophecy interview series we discussed the game's mission design. To that end, we posed some questions to Lorenz Dames, the Lead Game Designer on Black Prophecy.

Lorenz explained a great deal about how Reakktor is approaching solo content vs. group-oriented gameplay. He also told us how Reakktor Media is merging the completion of mission objectives with dogfighting your fellow players through PvP missions, where other players will try to counter your efforts to complete goals. Our interview should provide Black Prophecy fans with a solid overview of the game's mission design, which will be an essential aspect of the sci-fi MMO's gameplay.

Gallery: Black Prophecy Gallery

Tags: black-prophecy, featured, game-design, game-mechanics, interviews, lead-game-designer, lorenz-dames, massively-interviews, missions, new-titles, pve, pvp, quests, reakktor, reakktor-media, sci-fi

Planet Risk podcast explains tactics for EVE's high level wormholes

by James Egan Jan 29th 2010 at 11:59PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Podcasts, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Tips and tricks, PvE

The EVE Online-focused Planet Risk Show returned this week after a planned holiday hiatus. For those who've never heard of Planet Risk, it's a live weekly Split Infinity Radio program that's also released as a podcast. Planet Risk differs from most EVE podcasts in that it's largely focused on wormhole colonization, which only became possible after the Apocrypha expansion was released, allowing players to pull back the curtain of known space and head into uncharted expanses. Hosts Luminus Aardokay and Quivering Palm spend most of their EVE time in wormhole space, so they're fast becoming experts on the subject. Indeed, they broadcast The Planet Risk Show from within their colonized wormhole system, which is a rather unique one in the game.

Their home is one of the most hostile types of wormholes in New Eden -- a Class 6 -- where the Sleeper NPCs are especially deadly. The ship setups and tactics used against the Sleepers in such a solar system differ greatly from how it's done in lower class wormholes. They explain some of the tricks that allow them to overcome the Sleepers in their Class 6 wormhole this week in Episode 13 -- right around the 1 hour 11 second mark. It's a good listen, particularly as there isn't a great deal of information available on such high level encounters in the game.

Tags: apocrypha, ccp, ccp-games, class-5, class-6, eve, eve-online, exploration, game-mechanics, luminus-aardokay, planet-risk, podcasts, pve, quivering-palm, sci-fi, sleepers, the-planet-risk-show, tips-and-tricks, w-space, wormholes

Spy with the best: Join Massively for Global Agenda's launch! [Updated]

by Seraphina Brennan Jan 29th 2010 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, in-game, Launches, MMORTS, Global Agenda

Readers, we're contacting you through an encrypted channel right now to deliver some very important information. Agent Schuster and Agent Brennan will be on deck for the launch of Global Agenda, ready to fight the Commonwealth at your side.

Come Monday, log into Global Agenda and team up with Sera and Shawn to fight the good fight in both PvP and PvE strike teams. The dossier is still sealed on this mission, but keep an eye on this post and the encrypted T-Feed (@massively on Twitter) for the full information on how to link up with Apoc and Archangel on the day of the launch.

We'll announce our play times and character names come Monday by updating this post, so just place a bookmark here and get your game all patched up. Take advantage of the early start while you're at it and get your characters leveled up for launch. This way our enemies will never know what hit them.

Tags: featured, global-agenda, hi-rez-studios, launch-day, launch-day-party, meet-and-greet, meet-massively, party, pve, pvp, strike-force

Exploring PvP in Allods Online

by Rubi Bayer Jan 3rd 2010 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, New titles, PvP, Allods Online

Allods Online, the upcoming game from gPotato has turned out to be wildly popular, hitting the ground running even in Closed Beta Test 1. They're now into Closed Beta Test 3, and while there is still lots of progress to be made (that's kind of the point of beta testing), most beta test players are having a great time exploring and learning.

Keen from Keen and Graev's Gaming Blog has been enjoying his beta experiences, and this week he got a taste of PvP in the Holy Lands. The first blog entry, posted Friday, shares some coverage of his PvP playtime. It's a great read, explaining how the PvE and PvP experiences intermingle, with the PvE quests taking you into the fully PvP Holy Lands as well as sharing some new thoughts on stats. Saturday's entry continued the adventure as Keen got the lay of the land a bit, scoring his first significant PvP win.

The short version is this: The Holy Lands are hard. You're going to get smacked around, mostly by other players. If you are up for a challenge you need to check this area out, but not without reading through Keen's blog entries first.

Tags: allods-online, gpotato, holy-lands, keen-and-graev, keen-and-graevs-gaming-blog, pve, pvp

Hands-on with Klingons and PvP in Star Trek Online, page 2

by Kyle Horner Dec 28th 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Betas, New titles, Star Trek Online, Massively Hands-on

Tags: atari, beta, cryptic, hands-on, klingon, klingons, pve, pvp, star-trek, star-trek-online, sto

Changes and improvements to Epic Mission Arcs in EVE Online

by James Egan Dec 26th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Game mechanics, PvE

When EVE Online players think of what's changed in the game with the recent Dominion expansion release, the game's PvE content may not be the first thing that comes to mind. (Although Dominion introduced Epic Mission Arcs -- branching storylines -- for both the Guristas and Angel Cartel pirate factions.) The Atlanta-based content team at CCP Games has put a lot of work into Epic Mission Arcs for this expansion, though, which is the subject of the latest EVE dev blog. Developer CCP Big Dumb Object walks readers through the changes in game mechanics with the Epic Arcs and gives a breakdown of their adjusted rewards (plus the introduction of faction standings rewards), while paying homage to Led Zeppelin throughout the blog.

New mission content is also beginning to reflect how player actions in factional warfare affect the game's setting, specifically the Caldari militia's overwhelming victory over the Gallente. CCP Big Dumb Object mentions two new Gallente storyline missions, adding that "each mission stems from the past year's Faction Warfare results, Heth's resultant sale of key Gallente systems to the Caldari megacorps, and the Federation's reaction."

Tags: caldari, ccp, ccp-big-dumb-object, ccp-games, content-team, dominion, epic-mission-arcs, eve, eve-online, expansions, gallente, game-mechanics, heth, mission-running, missions, pve, sci-fi, storyline, tibus-heth

Heroes of Gaia releases first expansion

by Rubi Bayer Dec 22nd 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Expansions, News items, Free-to-play, Browser

Heroes of Gaia, the free-to-play, browser-based MMO from Snail Game, launched its first expansion today. Heroes of Gaia launched back in October, and the BABEL expansion adds quite a bit of new content to the game on both the PvP and PvE sides.

Updates to the PvE side begin with the Tower of Babel, a 40-level tower with progressively more difficult guardians (and better rewards!) on each level. The Tower of Babel can be attempted once per day, but fight carefully, because a defeat will expel you from the tower empty handed. The tower isn't the only new challenge facing players, though. Three times a day 20 minions will appear on your world map, each defending a powerful boss monster in an instanced challenge.

PvP has gotten a nice facelift as well, with the addition of new Arena rules, new military ranks, and a very generous list of new military equipment. The full list, as well as all the new additions that came with the BABEL expansion, can be seen on the official site.

Tags: babel, expansion, heroes-of-gaia, pve, pvp, snail-game

The Daily Grind: What's the one feature you can't live without?

by Seraphina Brennan Dec 10th 2009 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind

So many different systems in MMOs, so little time. From crafting to combat, PvP to PvE, housing to sieging, many MMOs offer a wide variety of features to their players.

Yet, there's always that one feature that really makes us love our game of choice. It's that one thing that we all read on the back of the box that really ignited our imaginations and made us stick the game on the counter and pull out our wallets. Today's question is quite simple: What's the one feature that you can't live without in your MMOs?

When you narrow it down to one, throw it into the comment box below and share it with your fellow readers. Now, discuss!

Tags: crafting, feature, guilds, housing, mmo-features, opinion, pve, pvp, siege, the-daily-grind