What’s up Attackers! Kirk here with your weekly block of MMO news. On today’s episode we have Battlerite, Black Desert Online, Rising Thunder, Skyforge, Albion Online and much much more! Actually take one one of the Much’s. Just much more! The XP, starts now!
Stunlock Studios announced this week that they have teamed up with Sanctum and the Goat Simulator developers Coffee Stain Studios to create Battlerite, a new, “TEAM vs TEAM brawler” that is intended to be Bloodline Champions’ spiritual successor. All “random elements” have been stripped from the game’s mechanics. It boasts short, intense matches and a high skill ceiling. A diverse cast of characters promises to give rookies and veterans alike a character they can comfortably play. In addition there will be a so called “fan system” that will allow a form of direct interaction with spectators that are part of the crowd. Players will be able to win the crowd, even if they don’t win the battle. The trailer does not show too much, aside from four champions, and excuse me, I never played Bloodline Champions, but it looks like it may only be 2v2 based on what we see here. You can find more information on the official website, but i’ll give you a quick rundown. It shows only four different champions: Croak, Shift, Freya, and Ashka, One different map, but question marks indicating at least two more, and that’s about it. Cool logo, and name actually. Battle rite.
Dam will be increasing Black Desert Online’s server capacity soon. As we saw via a tweet this week from Black Desert Online to a fan who complained that their server was ridiculously overloaded. Many players share the same resentment, with random disconnects to t he game, lag issues and mob spawn issues, which totally ruin any chance for enjoyment. The Tweet doesn’t give any additional information as to when it might be happening or to what capacity, but at least they are aware of the grief issues that the game is causing fans and are working on fixing those.
Radiant Entertainment this week announced via a newsletter to all of us Rising Thunder alpha participants that their action fighting game from ex-Capcom combat advisor Seth Killian will be shutting down on March 18th. Why may you ask? Well, besides the game being .. meh .. the studio was acquired by none other than Riot Games! Oh man, why would Riot buy them? I dunno, maybe Riot is working on a Fighting Game and they want it to Feature League Characters and they just want to get a head start? Or maybe they are just dicks and want to kill off new free to play games before they get off the ground. Probably the first, but .. I dunno. The newsletter did mention that the dev will be re-assigned to a new game that they are incredibly excited about. I guess we’ll know soon enough.
It has been about a month since Skyforge’s last major update, March of Knowledge, and Allods Team has announced another update called Dark Omen. The update will see an overhaul of Operations. Operations will be shorter in length and the “top players” will be allowed to skip them. Players that make it to one million tokens will now have access to a new progression bar. The Elder God questline will be introduced. Players will be tasked with “[learning] what it takes to become an Elder God” while continuing to fight off Mechanoid Invasions. Additionally, Pantheons will be given an option to merge together. Regardless of the size of the respective Pantheons, they will be able to combine both their members and resources into one larger Pantheon. AND The invasion symbol interface will be streamlined during the update. They will be given their own interface in order to make it quicker and easier to select them. As part of this update, invasion symbols will no longer be reset when you reset “‘regular’ symbols.” Also there was a new Knight Trailer released earlier this month, which you’re watching now. More information about the update—including the full patch notes—is set to be revealed as March 16th draws nearer.
We’ve been talking about Albion Online for what seems like forever now, and the team continues to amaze and excite as the nearly year long beta continues on. The latest upcoming patch called Cador will introduce a new death mechanics, mobile repairs, and zone-based fame and loot bonuses. The new death mechanic prevents instant death. It is explained that instant death mechanics caused issues for groups, making content even more difficult for the surviving members of the group when a member is killed and resurrected far away. Now, players will be knocked out first. And they must be continuously attacked in order to be killed—however, not all mobs will be interested in killing them. If their health points regenerate to full or someone resurrects them while they are knocked out, they will be able to get back up. A new item, the “Repair Kit”—will allow players to repair their items on the go. Rather than always having to do it in town. Repair Kits also cost more than a “full-fledged repair station” and have a limited amount of durability. Also, Fame and loot bonuses are now increased based on the zone. Green zones will allow you to reach “the highest Tiers of progression,” but your progress will be slow. Yellow zones and their Hellgates will grant 50% more fame and loot. Red and black zones and their Hellgates will grant a full 100% more fame and loot.
World of Tanks Update 9.14 is here and it is focused on refining the current user experience with refined physics, sound, and models. Vehicle physics have been improved significantly, so much so that players can now “skid, slide, flip tanks upside down,” and perform various other maneuvers. The sound engine has been ripped out and replaced with Audiokinetic Wwise (which, I’m not sure if it’s a typo or what). Sound is now said to be “processed on a different core,” allowing 10-30 unique sounds simultaneously. A new set of sounds recorded using “authentic vehicles at a real proving ground” have been introduced alongside the new sound engine. Additionally, 24 of the tanks have been given HD models and a new map set in war torn Paris called “Ravaged Capital” has been introduced. You can find the full patch notes on their website!
That’s all I’ve got for you today. Next week i’ll be at GDC, so I may or may not get a video out, or maybe i’ll do one from the hotel room, who knows, depends how I feel. Thanks for watching, see you guys soon!
