Fallen Earth dev blog talks builds, combat mechanics, and more

Let it never be said that the devs at GamersFirst and Icarus fail to communicate with Fallen Earth players. The latest wasteland-flavored dev blog is longer than your average George R. R. Martin novel, and just about as complex.

This week's installment is heavy on builds and mechanical info following the recent combat revamp, and theorycrafters, min-maxers, and folks whose eyes don't glaze over at the thought of number-driven minutiae will no doubt find it instructive.

There's also a brief mention of current subscriber rewards, as well as some hinting at the various subscriber levels (and premium access benefits) that the dev team is still in the process of tweaking. 


Source: Fallen Earth dev blog

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The Game Archaeologist and the What Ifs: Climax's Warhammer Online

Let's begin with a little personal history. Back in 2008, I decided to get into the blogging scene by jumping on board the latest MMO hotness -- in this case, Warhammer Online. As I was growing increasingly tired of World of Warcraft, WAR seemed to offer a refreshing alternative: a darker world full of brutal PvP and awesome new ideas. So I joined the elite ranks of bloggers (hey, stop laughing so hard) and spent the better part of two years jawing about Mythic's latest fantasy project.

And while Warhammer Online was, in my opinion, a solid product, it certainly failed to live up to the extremely high expectations held by both the development team and the players. No matter how it turned out, I really enjoyed talking about WAR, especially in the days leading up to its launch.

One of the first articles I ever wrote for my blog WAAAGH! dealt with the first attempt to bring Warhammer Online into the MMO genre (as a fun aside, it was one of the first times I got my name on Massively!). It's a "what if?" tale that's tantalizing to consider -- an entirely different studio, Climax Online, creating a much darker version of Warhammer than we've ever seen online. The tale of the game's rise and fall (and subsequent rise and fall again) captivated me, and I wanted to expand my old article as part of our recent series into exploring MMOs canceled before their launch.

So what if Climax had brought Warhammer Online to bear? Would it have eclipsed Mythic's vision or been its own animal? Hit the jump and let's dive into the pages of ancient history!

An early Climax

Before Mythic ever laid a finger on Warhammer, before Paul Barnett bought those hideously awesome sunglasses, before "War is Everywhere," there was another company already hard at work on an online Warhammer presence. Its name? Climax Online.

Climax formed in 1988, and began to seriously publish games in the PlayStation era. Today it's still trucking along with various low-profile titles under the moniker of Climax Group. You might recognize them as the makers of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Overlord: Dark Legend.

As early as 2000, Climax spied the Warhammer IP as a project worthy of its interest and efforts. Despite having no experience in the burgeoning field of online RPGs, Climax engaged the project fully and built up some buzz through E3 videos and limited press. An early partnership with Microsoft helped to build up the back-end technology.

By 2002, Climax joined to work hand-in-hand with Games Workshop in order to transform one of their most recognizable IPs into a hit MMO, and with SEGA distributing the game, they named the venture "Warhammer Online Ltd."

Paint it black

One of the most notable features of Climax's Warhammer -- and what it will be remembered for -- was an intense, unrelentingly dark atmosphere -- almost grim, as some described it. In an interview with GameZone, Climax touted this approach with glee: "Warhammer aims at a grittier realism where the downtrodden peasantry is suitably terrified of the monsters that really do go bump in the night (mainly when they drop the bodies they've been carrying)."

Playable races announced included Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, Halflings and Ogres. Four starting classes were also released: Warrior, Academic, Rogue and Adventurer. Guilds would be called "Warrior Companies," and clothing and armor would be independent graphical layers that would go on top of your character's model versus the standard "reskinning" the basic character model that was standard at the time.

It was stated that the large game world (set in the Reikland) would take around 12 to 14 hours to walk its seamless 400 kilometers end-to-end. Along the way, players would find three cities, 12 towns, 30 villages, 30 farmsteads, 18 coaching inns, 15 dungeons and other various landmarks to explore. The game world's look skewed to the more realistic than stylistic, saturated with dark and muted tones. Weather effects were planned along with seasons, including snowfall that would actually accumulate over time and other effects that would affect combat.

This world wouldn't be predictable, either. Enemies would roam randomly, and if left unchecked, would start to congregate in even greater numbers and potentially build NPC camps.

Major in thievery, minor in basketweaving

Noise was made by Climax about getting away from level-based advancement toward a more skill-based system. The idea here was that you would earn reputation with a certain group and then join them to learn what career skills they could teach (including non-combat abilities). Careers were lumped into various tiers that represented the power and difficulty level of the skills. You could easily learn Career 1 skills, but you had to jump through a lot of hoops to access Career 2, and so on.

Once you accumulated a certain set of skills, you would find yourself fitting into a class of sorts. A Master Assassin required beggar, ruffian and herbalist skills, among others. The higher you went in the career tiers, the more you became flagged for PvP to members of opposing career sets. As far as I can tell, this type of PvP flagging would not be optional but integrated.

While several locale names -- like the city of Altdorf -- might be familiar to today's WAR crowd, Climax's game seems almost radically different from what we've ended up with now. The planned server sizes would be relatively tiny (4000 to 6000 in population), voice acting non-existent, inventory would consider weight as a factor, combat would be round-based (not real time) to compensate for slower internet connections, trading between various NPC vendors would be a viable way to make a buck, and GMs would stage numerous live events such as invasions.

Interestingly enough, Climax's Warhammer would have come replete with an in-game journal that would record every quest undertaken, every mob killed, atlases and so forth -- a precursor to Mythic's famousTome of Knowledge, perhaps?

As the world of Warhammer was deeply suspicious of magic -- almost anti-magic, in fact -- the magic system in Warhammer Online would be altered from most traditional fantasy MMO models. Each zone would have a certain magical attunement, resulting in varying streams of magical energy that players could draw on for their diabolical spells. What might be easy to cast in one area would be almost impossible in another, depending on the spell in question.

A phoenix dies and is reborn

As the development rounded into its second full year, David Nicholson, president of Climax at the time, was quoted as saying:

 "We want to assure fans that we won't be rushed in this, and we won't release a game that does not meet all the strict quality criteria we place upon ourselves and placed upon us by the guys at Games Workshop."

The Climax team, who received a nice boost in profile at E3 2003, struggled to show something -- anything -- new at E3 just a year later. Battles between Climax and Games Workshop about the art and animation were cited as a major holdup. It quickly became obvious that Climax bit off more than it could program, and planned features were scaled back or cut altogether.

By June of 2004, Games Workshop took an inventory of the project, which they estimated would take $30 million to finish and launch (in comparison, Star Wars Galaxies took $30 million to fully develop and World of Warcraft $60 million). The company deemed it to be too expensive and stopped funding the project. This didn't fully kill Warhammer Online, however, as Climax continued to fund the project out of their own pockets and struggled to find a publishing partner.

Unfortunately for them it didn't happen, and Climax's Warhammer project was officially canceled for good by the end of the year. Climax's CEO, Karl Jeffery, expressed regret about the decision: "It was a deeply sad thing for us to have to do after so much hard work and commitment from the entire team."

Robin Dews, Climax's general manager, posted this good-bye on the now-defunct Warhammer Onlinewebsite:

 "It is with a great deal of sadness that I inform the community that we have decided to discontinue the development of Warhammer Online and will be closing down this website with immediate effect. This has been a difficult and painful decision but it was taken following a full review of the progress of the game, costs to date and future costs of the project. As a result both Games Workshop and Climax Development Limited, the computer games developer, have agreed to terminate the development project. I would like to say a personal thanks to all of the people who have followed our development over the last few years, your constant support and enthusiasm has meant a great deal to us."

About five months later, Mythic Entertainment snapped up the license. Instead of building off of Climax's efforts, the team decided to start over on the entire project, creating their own vision of the Warhammer world. This game would ultimately become Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, and released in 2008.

It's hard to say if Climax's version would've been successful, as we don't have much in the way of player testimonies or in-game footage to analyze. I certainly like some of the ambitions behind the project and the more open-form character development, but Mythic definitely made the better-looking game, and probably the more user-friendly one as well.
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Final Fantasy XI improves quality of life with July version update

It's not all that often that a game launches a major patch without a major drop of content, butFinal Fantasy XI has done that with the July version update that's just gone live. But that's not to imply that the version update doesn't include quite a bit -- just that it doesn't include any brand-new missions. Instead, the update contains a number of improvements to the game's quality, including the addition of new vendors, smoothed texture effects, and usability improvements to many of the game's existing systems.

Several jobs have seen improvements with this update, including White Mage, Samurai, and Puppetmaster, with the latter getting a few new automaton pieces to complement the changes. A number of Grounds of Valor regimes have also seen their overall requirements tweaked to help players complete the objectives with fewer headaches. There are also new and improved textures and resolution option for users on the PC, a welcome option that's been requested for some time. Final Fantasy XI can look at the full list of patch notes for all of the changes -- it might not be a new battlefield, but it's still full of welcome improvements.


Source: FFXI July version update

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Rumor: Beyonce Lost her Virginity to Jay-Z

*Beyonce is in the headlines today thanks to a MediaTakeOut item about her virginity.
Although Bey and Jay-Z have a rule to never discuss the details of their love life in public, the gossip site references an unnamed “British magazine” that claims Beyonce said the following about her prior boyfriends – suggesting she was a virgin before meeting current husband Jay-Z:
“People would be surprised as to the lack of experiences I’ve had,” she says. “When I was 12, 13 I had my first boyfriend, and he was my boyfriend till I was 17. At that age, that was a long time. I’ve always been very loyal and a little more mature.
“Though I was too young for it to really be a boyfriend – we didn’t live together, we didn’t, you know . . . That was my only experience with a guy, and since then I’ve only had one other boyfriend in my life – Jay.”

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MMObility: My iPhone versus my Android

I've been lucky enough lately to surround myself with some pretty nifty gadgets. It's not hard, really, being that my mobile phone provider gives me a large discount every two years. Coincidentally, my phones need to be upgraded about every two years, so it works out perfectly. Lately, though, I've been using my phones less and less as phones and more as gaming devices. I text to communicate and also make heavy use of the cameras. They might be called a "phone" but making phone calls is the least I do.

We were generally an iPhone household for a while. When my wife's old original iPhone was upgraded to a 3GS, I got the old one. When we upgraded her to an iPhone 4, I got the 3GS and my mother got the original. (She loves it by the way.) We also have an iPad 1 and 2, but no Android tablet... yet. I do have my HTC Inspire Android phone, though. I've spent enough time with all of them to form a pretty strong opinion on both.

Now, this is not going to be a tech-talk filled column. I don't do that sort of thing. I don't care if I save a few frames per second -- that stuff varies so much anyway. I am going to just lay out how they work for me specifically, and maybe you readers can fill in some blanks with your opinion.

Again, I am not going to tell you what kind of processor speed they each have or what type of memory. I can list specs until the cows come home and it still won't explain how they work in my everyday life. Also, you can simply go to the pages I link and check out the specs yourself. This column is all about me and my lifestyle, so use that as a barometer for your own use.

As I pointed out before, I now have an iPhone 3GS. My wife has the iPhone 4...a device I will get in another year or so when we have another free upgrade. With each new iPhone -- or really any Apple device -- there is a noticeable difference in performance and feel. Each new device gets better, slicker, smoother. The same thing happened with our iPads. I get to spend more time with the original and at the same time get to play along with the 2. Apple always one-ups itself. It does make you wonder if they do it almost on purpose: creating newer, shinier and better objects to play with, and releasing them on a super fast schedule. I am an Apple fan, for sure, but only because their devices are simply easy to use, intuitive, and will last forever. We still have one of the last iMacs sitting in our closet (the flower power one) and it runs all the same.

As a point of comparison for the Android argument, I'd like to note that Apple seems to limit how much you can do with their devices. They have made the iPhone a device that doesn't budge. If you want to make a game for the device, you have to match their standards. You must be approved to get in the app store, and the process is not exactly for the weak of heart. Apple has also decided to leave Flash off of their devices, and frankly I don't blame them. Flash is notorious for performance issues, something I notice on even my gaming PC. Yes, there is a lot to see and do in the world of Flash MMOs, but Apple does not care. If Android is a PC, the iPhone is a console.

These limitations don't bother me simply because the iPhone is such a wonderful, smooth device. I can hand my mother or 86 year-old grandmother an iPhone and they will be able to figure it out. If I handed them my Android phone, they would be lost. If anyone wonders about how the iPhone became so successful, they only need to look at its accessibility, ease of use, and wonderful design. The iPhone is a work of art.

Now let's talk about the Android. To be very specific, I have an Android HTC Inspire. I picked it up only after seeing a tech site review that claimed for 100 dollars it packed in more power and options than most phones on the market. At that price point I had to grab one. Even though I was a few months early for an upgrade, the store manager was happy to approve it and take my money.

I like the HTC, don't get me wrong. It is slick, the screen is large and nice, and it does have power. For gaming it does more, but using Flash on it only proves why Apple skipped the inclusion of Flash on their devices; Flash can work the phone hard. I still can barely play most Flash-based games (MMO or not) on the HTC, and when I can, it's not exactly a smooth experience. Where the HTC shines is in its ability to run embedded Flash videos. Of course, this means that wonderful ads are shown in all their annoying brilliance, but at least it works.

The problem I have with my HTC is that it is, essentially, my pocket desktop. It wants to give me as many options as my desktop. This is not a good thing. The PC desktop is a wonderful thing, don't get me wrong. I have used one for 12 years now and have enjoyed tweaking it, adding to it, and sinking thousands and thousands of dollars into it. But it has also crashed, broke, forced me to upgrade, ruined data and generally been accepted as a device that often requires babysitting. And yes, I know all about building your own PC, as if that saves you from having any issues at all (It does not.) The rule is, if you are a PC owner and use it for gaming, you will have an issue, a conflict, or a problem at some point. Let's face it: we have a love/hate relationship with our PCs.

The HTC allows me to add an animated background, a wonderful animated view of leaves or grass, but it sucks my battery. It also allows me to sync all of my social media while on the go, but takes so much data and battery life that it generally isn't worth it. Checking Gmail on the HTC is silly, especially since I have to go to the different folders to check different emails, instead of having them all laid out in one, easy-to-read folder. I can "side-load" apps, tweak the hell out of it, and generally treat the HTC as the mini-PC it is, but why would I want to do that? To be honest -- but hopefully not too mean -- I think that most of the Android enthusiasts I know are obsessed with their devices because they like to tweak on the things, notuse them. My brother seems obsessed with buying older phones from other users, fixing them up and seeing how he can make them work differently than intended. This is the same mentality behind a lot of so-called "hackers" -- people who are simply turned on by tweaking technology, but not as turned on by using it.

So, yes, the HTC gives me more options, more things to poke at, and more customization. As all PC gamers know, that's just more stuff that can break.

So, which do I prefer? Well, the iPhone is simply a device now. I no longer have it activated as a phone. The HTC took its spot on my phone bill. (I still use the iPhone for games, mail and other things.) But, as someone who used the iPhone to make calls and, you know, do phone stuff, the iPhone is far superior to the HTC. The voice quality is much better on the iPhone, the camera is far better (the HTC Inspire 8 Megapixel camera is a joke, actually, unless you have brilliant perfect lighting), and the device is much more intuitive. As a phone, the iPhone rules all.

As a gaming device, however, the HTC is sharper and seems more powerful. The screen is larger and brighter, so poking around on it works wonderfully. I tend to look for most MMOs on the HTC, but both devices have an MMO market that is growing. I just wish the HTC would stop trying to be a PC. I have never loved PCs, really, I simply have tolerated them because they let me play my favorite games. At the first chance I get, I'm never going back to a bulky desktop again. (I rarely play on it now, anyway.)

The funniest twist in all of this is that now, with the introduction of my own iPad, I stay on iOS devices the most. I keep the iPad near as I write or play on the laptop or desktop, and use it to check emails, Twitter, Facebook and other websites. I also use it to stream games from my desktop or to play iOS MMOs. So, overall, iOS wins out in this house.

What about your house? Do you have several devices? Is there a conflict in your house between them? Let me know in the comments section below!
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Stalker Arrested at Halle Berry’s Home

Halle Berry drops off pastries and party supplies at her daughter Nahla's school in West Hollywood. (July 1, 2011)

*TMZ is reporting that the man who has been spotted on Halle Berry’s property all weekend returned to her Hollywood Hills home late Monday night — and this time police busted the suspect on the scene after Halle ID’d him.
Law enforcement sources say the man, 27-year-old Richard Franco, jumped over the back wall at Halle’s home at around 11 p.m. Monday night. This time her private security — off-duty police officers — were watching the suspect on a security camera as he entered the grounds.
They quickly detained him and called LAPD officers to the scene — who arrested and booked him on suspicion of felony stalking.
According to TMZ, police believe this is the same man Halle spotted in her backyard Saturday and Sunday, prompting an all out search for the suspect.

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Minimalist Furniture

Minimalist Furniture |-Bedroomset

Here are some examples of minimalist furniture for your home interior. Besides practical minimalist furniture that also saves space so that your house neat and cleanimpression. Usually furniture is very suitable for house size minimum. With its small size so it sometimes has the impression furniture unique.But make sure furniture is in accordance with your taste ranging from color, size, and material of manufacture. And also make sure furniture is in line with your home interior design. Minimalist furniturethat does not mean not having the impression of luxury, but with minimalist furniture, you will get an impression of a neat and clean. Even if you can combine well with thehome interior did not rule out the impression of luxury will be created from your home

Incoming search terms:

topdesigninterior.

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