What’s up Attackers! Friday again, welcome to the XP, February 19th edition. Kirk here with Attack gaming and we’ve got an eclectic mix of games and genres to talk about on today’s show. First off I want to mention that I’ve set up a Patreon account at patreon.com/attack, and i’m going to make a little intro before the XP’s starting maybe next week, instead of Loot Crate, i’ll talk about it more then, but just a heads up. We want to continue making quality videos for you and it’s to get a buck here on YouTube, literally one thousand views is worth $1, so i’ll make a dollar on this episode, anyways, stay tuned for that. On today’s show we have Valiance Online, Paragon, Paladins, Heroes of the Storm and more! The XP, starts now!
After over a year of various testing phases, the City of Heroes-inspired MMORPG Valiance Online has begun crowdfunding in the form of PayPal donations. As the project has been going for some time now, the team is aiming to use donations to cover server costs and pay staff full-time, as well as introduce various features based on how much funding they get, which has become the norm based on the Kickstarter model. The base goal is $46,500 and is the team’s required “upfront investment” that will be used to “pay the bills and [their] employees.” This level of funding will allow the team to invest more time into improving character creation, introducing Act 1 of the story, and creating “roleplay character attributes,” a quality-of-life feature that will be directed at roleplayers. Further levels of funding focus on more features up to $99,000, but i’m sure if they start getting close to that, we’ll be seeing an increasing number of perks. Social zones, a market system, a crafting system, later acts of the story, even more character creator improvements including the ability to save costumes, repeatable missions, player-owned vendors, a tutorial zone, and an open PvP arena are just a few of the new features listed. To see the full list, head over to the donation page which is valiance.shogn.net/donate . Currently the funding sits at just under three thousand dollars by about 40 backers.
Epic Games showed off a new gameplay video for their upcoming Unreal Engine 4 MOBA, Paragon. The video called ‘rush the core’ features several of their newest heroes like Sparrow, Gideon, while Dekker and Steel and Grux display an assortment of skills and powers on their enemies. The cinematic gameplay looks extremely cool and definitely makes a MOBA player like myself pretty excited about checking the game out, which .. what the hell, how come we’re not in the beat yet? FUCK. Players have been raising concerns regarding card packs in the free-to-play MOBA. Instead of buying items players create their own deck of stat-boosting cards before a match (a la Paladins). By collecting in-game currency they can then purchase additional cards. Hence, recent concerns that the game may provide unfair advantages to players with good credit scores. Cards are an easy system to justify microtransactions in games, but Epic Games recently assured Eurogamer that they will never sell card packs in the in-game shop.
Hi-Rez Studios and Evie, the Winter Witch, helped give us all a tour of the new map reveal for Paladins this week. The Glacier Keep map, which came to us with the Winter Wonderland Patch, is a new siege map and promises to deliver a varied play style when compared to the previous siege maps, Enchanted Forest and Temple Ruins. And that’s all I really have to say about that. Thanks for the tour Evie.
There’s probably nothing more frustrating in a multiplayer game, especially a MOBA, than an unbalanced matchmaking system. Because of the feedback that the team has been getting over this very fact, Blizzard has made a few changes to Heroes of the Storm’s matchmaking system. Good job players! The newly revamped matchmaking system dramatically decreased uneven matches from 44% down to a measly 3%. Apart from a team’s overall skill level the improved system also takes into account individual skill ratings, team composition, and party size so players don’t end up in a match of pugs vs clan: a scenario that solo players face all too often not only in Heroes of the Storm but in other MOBAs as well. Queue times, however, have been affected by the changes, but according to the devs, “We’re okay with [the] time gain if it means we’re creating high-quality games.” Blizzard is also working on further improvements such as preventing certain heroes, like Murky and Nova, among others, from being in the same team. And the developers have implemented a balance patch that slightly nerfs Rehgar, Li-Ming, and Stitches, while giving Anub’arak a better chance of survival.
If there’s anything I like more than locking a new class behind a paywall, then I haven’t found it yet. That’s why, when Devilian told us that the new Tempest class that they’ve been raving about since the Fury of the Tempest patch was first announced, was a measly $9.99, I was hooping’ and hollering’ and getting my wallet ready to dish out the cash! Yes, the new patch does add two new Archedevil dungeons, some level 54 gear sets, a new Raid dungeon and more, all for free, which you’d expect .. locking a class behind a paywall does seem a bit unfair. But then again, if you’re enjoying the game and grow tired of the classes at t his point, maybe it’s worth it. I’m probably not a fair voice as I grew tired of the game after a few hours of playing. Moving on…..
I’m not sure how many of our Subscribers here play mobile games, the video views for most of the mobile games we do don’t seem to be doing the best, but every once in a while it’s nice to talk about this massive, and might I add, still growing market. Jagex has announced Runescape: Idle Adventures, an upcoming idle RPG game for Android, iOS, and PC. The game is being developed in collaboration with Hyper Hippo (classic mobile game developer name). Jagex describes Idle Adventures as “Chilled-out, low-intensity gameplay sitting alongside deep character progression and a light-hearted, comedic story, with nuggets of RuneScape lore unveiled as you progress.” Runescape: Idle Adventures will be available sometime this Spring on PC as a free download on Steam and iOS and Android later in the year, also free to play. Jagex hosted a lifestream on Twitch this morning to talk more about the game, but we missed it, can’t be everywhere at once, I went through a bit of the replay but didn’t find any gameplay.
WEBZEN announced this week that Age of Wulin’s eighth chapter, “Uncharted World,” will be launching on March 8th. Uncharted World will increase the current world’s size by over two fold, adding eight new regions. Everything from deserts to “forests of stone” will be included. Six “secret areas” are also making their way into the game world. A new, survival-esque game mode is also being introduced where players will have to manage constitution, hunger, thirst, and even body temperature in the new zones. Those who survive will learn “new fighting techniques such as traps” and gain access to new resources. Age of Wulin will also be receiving a housing system. Players will be able to choose both the size and style of their house. Over 100 pieces of furniture will be in-game when Uncharted World launches, some of which give “powerful buffs.”
That’s the news i’ve got for you this week, thanks for watching liking and subscribing. I hope you all have a great weekend and we’ll catch you back on Monday. Cheers!
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