MMO Extravaganza — Penny Arcade

Gorgeous

Last time, on the Screenshot Thread...

I think you all know the drill but, if you're new, here are some guidelines...

This being a screenshot thread, the rules regarding images are relaxed a bit. For the sake of courtesy, please still try to aim for the image size limits, but don't worry if you have to go over here and there.
Rules for NSFW images still apply. Your pics of a character wearing nothing but the Sex God's Thong of the Jackalope is probably not going to fly. Link those images and slap a NSFW warning on them.
Images are automatically resized to fit the viewer's horizontal resolution and can be clicked on to assume their original size. Basically: there is no need to worry about breaking "h-scroll" or whatever. Let your images hang out in the open and stop hiding them in spoilers unless it's absolutely necessary.
MMOs are starting to get a bit more story-oriented, so try to keep that in mind.
This is important: images within spoiler tags still load. Any image in a spoiler will be treated as if it was not in a spoiler, so putting your NSFW character screenshot or 3MB gif in a spoiler will not protect you from punishment. Link that shit.

Now, show us your screens and have a WHALE of a time.

Welcome to EVE Online.

You are a capsuleer, able to fly everything from the lowliest shuttle to the most massive capital ship.

When the ship you are piloting explodes, it is destroyed; some of the contents can be looted or salvaged, but the rest is lost forever.

Every mineral can be mined by players, every item and ship can be built by players, and everything can be bought and sold on a market controlled by players.

You can be a bounty hunter, searching high security space for players who have committed offenses, buying their kill rights, and executing them on the spot.

You can be a member of a militia, fighting over low security space between the four major empires of New Eden.

You can be a member of an alliance, joining an empire that spans hundreds of null security systems and taking part in battles that involved thousands of players.

Or you can be a merchant, miner, trader, scam artist, thief, mercenary, moon baron, teacher, space trucker, spy, pirate, or maybe even something no one has thought of yet.

Eve Online is a political, sandbox, spaceship, economic, military MMO in which you can do whatever you want. It takes a departure from other MMOs in that it all occurs on a single server and skills are trained 24/7 in a time-based queue as opposed to a physical grind. While the game has a notorious learning curve (lessened by many recent improvements to the game), if you hang around for long enough you'll be hooked for life. EVE has a free expansion every six months, leading to an interesting, growing game universe.

It is never too late to start playing!

Getting Started in EVE

Check out the recruitment thread for Merch Industrial, the Penny Arcade forum corporation: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/171557/eve-online-a-space-empire-of-tyranny-and-dick-jokes/p1

EVE University is a new player training corporation: http://www.eveuniversity.org/

Red versus Blue is ideal if you like the idea of cheap ships exploding nonstop in a forever-war: http://rvbeve.com/forums/index.php?/portal/

Feel free to suggest other links for me to put here.

Current Events in New Eden

The latest free expansion, Rubicon (http://www.eveonline.com/rubicon/), was released in December. The next free expansion will be sometime this summer.

Fanfest is later this month, so a lot of new information will probably be released soon. This also means that CSM Elections are coming up, and Burn Jita is just around the corner!

EVE’s nullsec regions are currently settling down after the Halloween War (October 2013-February 2014), which was between the CFC/RUS and N3/PL. The CFC, in the west, is purging their regions of hostiles that accumulated during the war. In the east, a group of predominately Russian alliances are still battling PL and N3. The new HERO Coalition has recently deployed to Sendaya to attempt to seize space in Cache, and in response several CFC squads and alliances have deployed to Doril, Hemin, and the surrounding systems. Cancel that, we're heading back to VFK to clean house.

If anyone else has alliance updates from a different point of view, I'll post them here.

EVE Videos

The best expansion trailer:

The most recent expansion trailer:

The most ironically quotable trailer:

Clear Skies: An EVE machinima series, Parts One, Two, and Three.

Fleet PvP: Clarion Call parts One, Two, and Three,mostly featuring smaller fleets engaging larger ones using expensive ships and interesting tactics, with fantastic commentary.
Fleet PvP: The CFC's Freedom Squad jumps in on a capital and supercapital fight.
Fleet PvP: The CFC's European Goonion engages a TEST/Brave Newbies fleet.

Solo PvP: I have no idea and I'm terrible at this, someone suggest videos to go here.

EVE in the Media

There is an actual EVE comic book! EVE: True Stories is currently being released. You may be able to see some of the issues for free at this link: https://digital.darkhorse.com/profile/4386.eve-true-stories-hc/

The Battle of B-R5RB: January 2014, the largest and most expensive battle in the history of gaming.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodbath_of_B-R5RB
http://themittani.com/features/largest-virtual-battle-ever

The Battle of 6VDT-H: July 2013, broke the record for greatest number of players in a single system (~4200).
http://themittani.com/features/6vdt-cfc-battle-report

The Battle of Asakai: January 2013, a huge fight involving capital ships and basically all of EVE trying to get in on the action
http://themittani.com/news/breaking-massive-super-fight-asakai-lowsec
http://themittani.com/news/asakai-aftermath-all-over-cobalt-moon

Sins of a Solar Spymaster: Largely out of date, but a very interesting look at many different aspects of EVE by The Mittani, who rules as glorious (alliance) leader for many of us:
http://www.tentonhammer.com/features/mittani?page=8

The EVE Universe

Dust 514 (dust514.com) is a free to play first person shooter for the Playstation 3. It is linked to EVE Online in various ways, the coolest of which (for EVE players, anyway) are the orbital bombardments.

EVE:Valkyrie (evevalkyrie.com) is an upcoming space combat simulator designed for use with the Oculus Rift.

Star Trek Online is, what else, an MMO based in the Star Trek universe. You fly a space ship, look at other space ships, blow them up, beam down and shoot people.

New expansion coming in October

Spoiler:

Delta Rising

Level cap to 60 but sort of not really
The level cap is being increased to 60, but the skill cap is staying where it is currently. Instead, each level up you get one skill point to use in an entirely new specialization tree, whatever that means.

Tier 6 ships
A total of eight new tier 6 ships have been released, and holy cow are some of them ugly.

Just look at that shit.

Tier 6 ships have 13 bridge officer powers (up from 12 at tier 5), and 10 console slots (up from tier 9 or 10 for tier 5)

Tier 5U ships
Most tier 5 ships upgrade to something like tier 6. Upgraded ships gain +1 console slot, are increased to the equivalent of tier 6 hit points and shields (fleet and lockbox ships keep their bonus), but don't gain a bridge officer power. This means that fleet or lockbox ships have more consoles and better hp than the new tier 6 ships thanks to their +10% bonus, but have one less power slot.

For lockbox ships, this is supposed to be free. For other ships, it sounds like this is a zen thing.

Intel boffs
A new type of bridge officer. Intelligence officers are not a new department, but a sub-class. Some Tactical, Engineering, and Science officers are specialized as Intelligence officers, meaning they can learn Intelligence powers in addition to their department powers. There's a wrinkle here, though. When slotted on ships, they must be in special bridge officer stations to use intelligence powers. For example, you have a Tactical Intelligence officer, and your ship has a commander tactical station. Your officer can use all his tactical powers, but his intelligence powers are locked out. You'll need a ship with a Tactical Intelligence station to use his intelligence powers.

Missions, bad guys, other stuff
So far we know about all kinds of Voyager bad guys that we get to blow up. There'll be a whole campaign set in the Delta Quadrant, and a number of Voyager actors will be reprising their roles, including Tuvok (cool), Seven of Nine (nice), The Doctor (awesome), Harry Kim (uh...), and Neelix (/ragequit)

Wait, you said bad guys?
Yup, wouldn't be an MMO without bad guys. So far, that we know of, the Voth, Borg, Undine, Hirogen, and Elachi are returning as enemies, and the new enemies include the Vaadwaur, Kazon, Benthans, Maalon, Hazari, Kobali, Automated Personnel Units, Hierarchy, the Borg Cooperative (a society of liberated Borg Voyager encountered), and somebody called the Octanti (a random unnamed alien-of-the-week that Cryptic slapped a name and backstory onto).

The last time more than one enemy faction was added at once was way back in season 1 when the Fek'ihri and Breen were both added for the Klingon's Fek'ihri invasion campaign. This time we're getting nine. That's a hell of a lot of kill accolades to fill up, and a hell of a lot of lockbox material.

We don't get to shoot everybody in the Delta Quadrant, though. We also get to be friends with the Ocampa and the Talaxians. No, we don't get to shoot Talaxians. Yes, that is a travesty.

SHIP INFO
Compared to launch, or even just to the last OP, ships have diversified immensely. The classifications are getting blurrier, there are more sub-types within each, and there's a lot of ships that just defy the system, like massive terror weapons with the bulk of a cruiser and the weapons of an escort.

Cruisers: Big heavy engineering ships, built mainly to fight broadside with beam arrays. Battlecruisers can use heavier forward facing weapons, but many still favor the broadside arrangement. Cruisers have special commands that give them a free "aura" buff to themselves and their nearby allies.

Escorts: Faster tactical ships built for heavy forward facing weapons and either hit and run harassment or just vaporizing targets with huge burst damage.

Destroyers: Despite dev insistence that "destroyers are not escorts" destroyers are just escorts. Some of them are slower and heavier, some are lighter and faster, some are exactly the same, all of them are escorts.

Raiders: Mainly a Klingon thing, raiders are very light escorts with universal bridge stations and the ability to cloak while in combat. Raiders have a flanking mechanic where they do increased damage to the rear arc of targets.

Science Vessels: The name is misleading, but these are vessels built for science. Control, support, healing, and other fancy technomagic effects. If it comes out of a deflector and modulates the tachyons, it's probably a science vessel. Science vessels have been scheduled to get their own special bonus "real soon now" since about February, in the form of a secondary deflector slot which accepts special deflectors with significant bonuses to certain kinds of science powers (either additional effects or percentage increases far beyond what a standard deflector offers through skills).

Carriers: Carriers launch pets. These range from the escort carriers and flight deck cruisers, which combine normal ships with some light fighter or shuttlecraft support, up to monster dreadnoughts like the Vo'quv and Scimitar that actually launch other starships. Many fall into other designations, while some are dedicated "pure carriers" with light weapon loadouts, two hangars, and heavy support abilities. Some carve unique ship types for themselves, like the Scimitar, which combines a weird combination of escort, cruiser, and dedicated carrier aspects into a giant, slow, fragile terror weapon.

Warbirds: Romulan ships with singularity cores and fancy battle cloaks that increase mobility. Warbird is something of an arbitrary designation, since they come in escort, cruiser, science, and carrier flavors, but all Warbirds do share some unique mechanics related to their special warp cores. In combat, your singularity core will charge, enabling you to fire a wide variety of unique powers only available to Warbirds.

Intel Ships: These ships are technically escorts, cruisers, science vessels, and so forth, but their commander stations are intelligence specialized, meaning that intelligence officers slotted there can use both their department powers and any intelligence powers they know. Intel ships are generally faster and more fragile than their non-ingelligence counterparts, but also get bumped one step up the stealth scale - Feds get cloaks, Klingons get battle cloaks, and Romulans get battle cloaks they can fire torpedoes through.

NEWBIE INFO

Spoiler:

Q:Can I auto shoot on my ship or on ground?

A: Yes! Go to your control settings, and enable auto-attacks on right click. You'll need to do this for space and ground.
After, simply right click on your weapon attack in your ability tray, and a green outline will show around the icon.
Use the attack once and it will begin auto firing after that. To disable, right click again.

Q: How do I go faster in space?

A: Toggle Full Impulse by pressing Shift + R or else click the Up Arrow button on your throttle display. Warning: Going
into full impulse drains all power from shields, weapons, and aux to allow you to go faster. It is unwise to blast straight
into combat from full impulse. A wiser course of action is to drop out of full impulse a short distance outside of combat
range and let your power levels readjust themselves.

Q: How do I make ground combat not be poop from a butt?

A: At this point, you can't. However, you can alleviate this somewhat by turret spamming. Have your away team be 3
engineers and 1 science, for healing. Equip your engineers with as many turret abilities as you can, or want. Then in combat,
sit back and watch, or go make yourself a cup of coffee. Relax. You earned it.

Q: When do I get a promotion and a new ship?

A: You get new ships at levels 10, 20, 30, and 40. This corresponds with your promotion to Lt. Commander, Commander,
Captain, and Rear Admiral. Veterans get a ship at 50, corresponding to Vice Admiral.

It's still unconfirmed how or if we get a tier 6 ship, but if we do it would probably be either level 55 (Admiral) or 60 (Fleet Admiral).

Q: How do I access Fleet controls, PVP Queues, the Bridge, and other options?

A: There is an icon to the right of your mini-map which is a down arrow. Clicking this down arrow will give you a drop-down
menu which has several important features on it. Yeah, its fairly well hidden.

Q: What are all these kinds of PVE maps?

A: Well, first you have your regular episodic missions, those are obvious.
Then you've got patrols, which are missions that pop up the first time you travel near various systems at warp.
Red Alerts pop up in many sectors at random, and if you accept will put you into a timed battle against (usually) Borg.
Then there's queue missions of various types, accessible from the PVP queue button below the minimap. There are all kinds of missions here, ranging from simple "shoot all the things" to more structured "shoot the things while doing things" and "shoot things in order" missions. Some of the more recent ones do weird things like having you sole dialog puzzles and in one case, fight a series of enemy fleets coming down three straight lanes MOBA-style.
Then there are persistent "adventure zones," in which you do your open world missions with other players similar to more traditional MMOs.
Lastly, there are less persistent "battle zones" which keep the shared open world map as adventure zones, but a more structured objective system.

Q: How do I turn-in quests or acquire new ones?

A: On the bottom left of your mini-map is a Starfleet icon. If you click this icon, it opens a window with all of your
available mission contacts. From this window you will be able to turn-in and pick-up new missions. You do not have to fly
back and visit your contact in person between each mission.

Q: How do I adjust my power settings?

A: The button on your power control window that looks like two sheets of paper will bring up a small menu with a 1, 2, and
3 on it. If you click button 3, it will change your window to allow you complete control over your power settings. This is
the only way you can raise your aux.

FEATURED EPISODES - These missions offer special rewards. Some are only for a limited time! However, they come back during
the "Featured Episode Re-runs"

Spoiler:

Series 1 - The Breen - 5 episodes
A longtime enemy of the Klingon Empire, the Breen have grown even more aggressive and have taken particular interest in the
planet Defera. It's up to you and your crew to determine what's brought the Breen to Defera and to save the Deferi people.

-The limited time reward was your very own Breen officer! Fancy!
-A few updates ago, a new Breen ship set has been added. This is a permanant reward.

Series 2 - The Devidians - 5 episodes
Thousands of Starfleet officers and KDF warriors have died in the battles in the Neutral Zone. The destruction has drawn
the attention of the Devidians, unseen predators who use chaos as a cover for their kills. This time, however, their plans
involve more than simple survival. You must stop them before they can change the face of the quadrant forever!

-The limited time reward was the Ophidian cane.

Series 3 - Cloaked Intentions - 5 episodes
Battles between former allies threaten to tear the Romulan Star Empire apart. Find the heart of the conflict before it
engulfs the quadrant!

-The limited time reward for this was the Reman officer.
-The Reman Prototype shield from this set is what makes your ship glow green.

Series 4 - Second Wave - 5 episodes
An anti-Borg conference on DS9 is crashed when the wormhole coughs up the Dominion fleet it ate in the episode Sacrifice of Angels.

-Limited time reward: Shard of Possibilities

Since series 4, Feature Episodes have all been one-offs. Most have not had limited time rewards, however Temporal Ambassador did give a free tier 5 Ambassador-class ship. That ship has not returned during rerun events, but has appeared in other promotions. The tier 3 version is still free from the mission, and a fleet version is available from the fleet starbase.

Temporal Ambassador
A follow up to the TNG episode Yesterday's Enterprise. While trying to return to the past, the Enterprise-C ends up in the future. Because the Federation still lost the Klingon War, the Dominion swept through and destroyed the quadrant, and now the galaxy we know is divided between the Dominion and the Tholians.

Sphere of Influence
Explore an Iconian Gateway with THE Worf, son of Mogh, leading to a base hidden subspace. Then do something really stupid that will probably doom the galaxy.

Step Between Stars
Join Tuvok exploring a starbase touching the surface of a star inside a Dyson Sphere, and do something else that will probably doom the galaxy.

Surface Tension
Following Step Between Stars, Tuvok leads a arranges a peace conference in the Dyson Sphere. This time you don't doom the galaxy, but the galaxy is doomed anyway when the Undine show up,

PLAY WITH US!

Penny Arcade has a fleet, the "Arcadian Defense Fleet"

We have a chat channel setup, this is where we Arcadians chat. To join, type the following:
/channel_join "Penny Arcade"
The quotation marks are important, don't forget them.

There is also a PA Klingon Fleet, called the "House of M'rch." Everyone uses the same old Penny Arcade channel no matter
their faction.

Thanks to Just_Bri_Thanks and Basil for the last two OPs, I've kept much of their work intact.

Mark Jacobs baby has a new name. "Camelot Unchained" has lore and leaders that predate DAoC, and more excitedly, more recognizable faction leaders.

City State Entertainment was formed with previous Mythic entertainment with Mark Jacobs at the helm.

Together they have been designing what appears to be a game like DAoC.

There will be 3 factions and perhaps 3 gods fighting over earth with devout followers Realm vs Realm style.

Mark sheds light on CU for those who want to know more about the game.

We should be expecting Beta 1 by 2015, Alpha 1 by August 2014

Special thanks to MoonLightWave from Neo GAF.

Camelot Unchained takes one part classic legends, adds a twisty little apocalyptic passage, and mixes in a whole batch of creativity to birth not just another “me and my WoW-clone”, but a unique RvR-focused MMORPG. A cataclysmic explosion pierced “The Veil” that separates dimensions, bringing forth a nightmarish mix of both legends and horrors upon our world, leading to an extinction-level event. It is against the backdrop of an almost unrecognizable world that our game unfolds, and as a player of Camelot Unchained, you can expect the following:

Camelot Unchained is a subscription-based, RvR-focused MMORPG. RvR is an acronym for Realm vs. Realm, which we call TriRealm™ for the interaction of the three main realms.

The game will feature RvR-based leveling tracks for all classes. No PvE (player vs. environment) -based leveling, loot drops or other such systems are currently planned. All leveling will come from engaging in the game’s RvR-based systems, whether by fighting other players, capturing objectives, and/or crafting objects to help in RvR.

You will have the choice of playing any realm on each of the game’s servers except that you may play only characters from the same realm on any single server. In other words, one server = one realm.

Our subscription tiers will be based on players' individual choices regarding participation, but will be less than the current accepted norm for MMORPGs.

The game will be developed for PC (Windows) with stretch goals for other platforms.

The game will be available in English with French, German and other languages based on demand.

The client will be DRM-free and distributed via Torrent.

Banshee Class:

Starting October 15th 2014, Pre-alpha will begin. ITs and Alpha testers Unite for a playable version of the game to test.

I’m pleased to announce that on Weds. October 15th 2014, Camelot Unchained™ will begin its Pre-Alpha Testing period (also known as the P.A.T.s)! During the next five months, we will be opening up the most current build(s) of Camelot Unchained to our Backers whose tiers included Alpha testing access so that those folks can get a look at and also have some fun in the game.

Second pre alpha test linked here.

Guild information: the server with the most dense PA population at the moment is Jedi Covenant. There are no official PA guilds here, but I am an officer in the active Republic guild <Dominus Nihil> and will invite if asked (sign up at http://www.dominusnihil.com/forums required)

The PA guilds at launch were on Shadowlands, <Rigorous Scholarship> for Republic, <Remarkable Circumference> for Imperial, however these guilds are mostly inactive. Ask in thread for specifics on an invite.

For either Jedi Covenant or Shadowlands server, type /cjoin PennyArcade to chat with other PA folks (not available to free to play, sadly)

Classes

Spoiler:

Jedi Knight, Republic/Sith Warrior, Imperial: Melee DPS or Tank. Heavy or Medium Armor, dependent on AC.
Jedi Consular, Republic/Sith Inquisitor, Imperial: Ranged DPS, Melee DPS, Tank or Healer. Light Armor.
Smuggler, Republic/Imperial Agent, Imperial: Ranged DPS, Melee DPS, or Healer. Medium Armor.
Trooper, Republic/Bounty Hunter, Imperial: Ranged DPS, Melee DPS, Healer or Tank. Heavy Armor.

Many convenience features have been added to the game recently, notably:

All taxis now automatically unlock when you first land on a planet
Quick travel points no longer need to be clicked, they unlock when you come near them
Armor vendors from 1 - 60 have been redesigned to be more useful, so Cybertech crafting is no longer required to help keep a leveling toon in the correct gear.
Skills no longer cost credits
Outfit designer permits you to keep outfit designs as skins, regardless of what mismatched/ugly armor you might be wearing. Though if you like your gear's look, you can make that the default or create an outfit for it.

http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/thank_you.php

Farewell, from all of us at Paragon Studios
This morning we announced that Paragon Studios will be taking to the skies of City of Heroes for the last time.

In a realignment of company focus and publishing support, NCsoft has made the decision to close Paragon Studios. Effective immediately, all development on City of Heroes will cease and we will begin preparations to sunset the world's first, and best, Super Hero MMORPG before the end of the year. As part of this, all recurring subscription billing and Paragon Market purchasing will be discontinued effective immediately. We will have more information regarding a detailed timeline for the cessation of services and what you can expect in game in the coming weeks.

The team here at Paragon deserves special praise for all that we have accomplished over the last 5+ years. These developers are some of the most creative and talented people in the gaming industry. By now, we've all been given this news internally, but to anyone who may be reading this message after the fact; know that your hard work and dedication has not gone unappreciated or unnoticed. To any potential studios looking to grow your team; hire these people. You won't regret it.

To our Community,

Thank you. Thank you for your years of support. You've been with us every step of the way, sharing in our challenges, encouraging us to make City of Heroes better, more than everyone else thought it could be. We couldn't have come this far without you. I implore you all, focus on the good things of CoH and Paragon Studios. Don't dwell on the "how" or the "why", but rather join us in celebrating the legacy of an amazing partnership between the players and the development team.

Thank you, and I'll see you in the skies, one last time.

Andy Belford

Community Manager

Paragon Studios.

So it seems F2P wasn't enough to save City of Heroes.

I'm a bit upset by this. I don't play much anymore but I still love all my characters and buy costume bits for them all the time.

jdarksun wrote: »

How do I play with other PAers?
As of this moment, anybody can play with anybody with OneTamriel. If you want to PVP with us, you should probably be Aldmeri Dominion, because that's where most of us are.

What is The Elder Scrolls Online?
An ZeniMax Online Studios, sister company to Bethesda Game Studios (developers of The Elder Scrolls series and Fallout 3). It takes place in the Elder Scrolls universe, but in the Second Era - well before the events of Morrowind, Oblivion (both Third Era) and Skyrim (Fourth Era). Tiber Septim isn't even a thing yet.

Another MMO, huh? How does it play?
Surprisingly like an Elder Scrolls game. A character's abilities are defined less by their class and more by what weapons, armor, and magic a character uses. There are some conceits, however, as characters are locked to one class. But this class doesn't define a character's role so much as inform it: you can be a Destruction Staff wielding Dragon Knight focused on fire magic, or a Sword-and-Board Sorcerer that can tank the world. You get two weapon loadouts that have five active abilities per loadout, so it's kind of like Guild Wars 2 meets Skyrim. again, as of One Tamriel, you get upscaled or downscaled no matter where you go, so you can even have the ES experience of just sorta meandering off into Aedra-know-where.

Force Strategy Games (these guys have awesome TESO videos) explains it best:

Character Builder at ESOHead

What about end game? Are the raids?
There are Adventure Zones (areas designed for 4 players), and Trials (areas designed for 12 players). Trials are interesting in that there are a set number of revives a group is allowed, and a leaderboard for those who complete them.

What about PvP?
The president of ZeniMax Online Studios is Matt Firor. That name should be familiar to long time MMO players, specifically due to Dark Age of Camelot. Firor was VP of Production Development at Mythic Entertainment before behind hired by ZeniMax. That heavily informs the PvP specifically and the game in general. How? Well, there are three factions.

Aldmeri Dominion
This alliance, led by Queen Ayrenn (as voiced by Kate Beckinsale), consists of Altmer, Bosmer, and Khajiit. It controls the Summerset Isles, Elsweyr, and Valenwood. The Dominion was formed by the Altmer after restoring order to Valenwood and Elsweyr.

Both the NA and EU guilds will be Aldmeri Dominion.

Daggerfall Covenant
This alliance, led by King Emeric, consists of Orcs, Bretons, and Redguards. It controls High Rock, Hammerfell and the recently-recognized "province" of Orsinium. The Covenant was formed by the Bretons through much diplomacy, trade, and marriages.

Ebonheart Pact
This alliance, led by Jorunn the Skald-King, consists of Dunmer, Argonians, and Nords. It controls Skyrim, Morrowind, and Black Marsh. The Pact was formed by the Dunmer, Argonians, and Nords through diplomacy due to the recent Akaviri Invasion.

PvP takes place in the province of Cyrodiil, and is a three-way tug of war between the factions. They compete to control keeps, seize Elder Scrolls, and defend them against attackers. There are catapults, ballista... did I mention the development lead was a bigwig on Dark Age of Camelot?

Anything else I need to know?

Force Strategy Gaming's Elder Scrolls Online playlist

The Elder Scrolls Online (official page)

Diversify. The experience you get is divided among the armor you have equipped and the buttons on your hotbar.

For an invite to the EU guild, send a whisper to Zhakti (@Echo)

For an invite to the NA guild, message any of these people: first ten (image), eventually all of these folk will be able to invite

NA Guild Registration Form (if you want invite permissions) <--- PLEASE SIGN UP HERE THANKS!

NA PvP Campaign voting form

Visual crafting guide

A Reddit thread on efficient crafting and its results spreadsheet

Some neat addons:

EsoHead database - does nothing on its own, but lets you upload data to EsoHead.com.

EsoHead Markers - uses the EsoHead DB to put map markers for gathering nodes. Very handy if you're going deep into crafting.

LootDrop - this is great if you have autoloot enabled. Shows what you've just looted in the corner.

Item information (rarity and damage) added to item border/decals

Slightly Improved Attribute Bars (bar percentages)

Spam Filter

Research Assistant

Crafting Research Timer

Guild or Friend? Character Icons. Rainbow Reticle fills a similar role, but also makes hostile mobs more visible.

Bag filters!

Crafting tips:
reddit thread
its google doc

Patch notes:

V1.0.1 patch notes

V1.0.2 patch notes

Pixelated Pixie's list of suggested mods

Welcome to the Penny Arcade Guild Wars 2 Community Thread!

New to GW2? Check out the FAQ or the official Guild Wars 2 site for more information on the game.
New to Heart of Thorns (the first expansion)? Check out GW2 Wiki for more information.
New to Path of Fire (the second expansion)? Check out GW2 Wiki for more information.
Play for Free? Go here: https://welcome.guildwars2.com/en/play-for-free
Returning player? The Guild Wars 2 Official Wiki has both a summary of the Living Story plot and the features from each release. There’s also a list of permanent changes since launch.
Where to buy Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire? Official Site

Path of Fire Expansion - Releases September 22, 2017

Cost: $29.99 (Standard), $54.99 (Deluxe), $79.99 (Ultimate)
New Zones: The Crystal Desert five huge new zones
Mounts: There are 4 added mounts, each with movement abilities.
Bounties: Take on bounties tasks related to defeating various enemies
New Adventures!
New Guild Hall!
New Specializations:
- Ranger - Soulbeast Elite Specialization (dagger mainhand, become one with pet, stances)
- Necromancer - Scourge Elite Specialization (torch, shades replacing death shroud, punishments)
- Mesmer - Mirage Elite Specialization (axe, replaces dodge, deceptions)
- Engineer - Holosmith Elite Specialization (sword, photon forge replaces belt, exceed skills)
- Guardian - Firebrand Elite Specialization (axe, tomes replacing virtues, mantras)
- Elementalist - Weaver Elite Specialization (sword, attune to two elements, stances)
- Thief - Deadeye Elite Specialization (rifle, deadeye's marks, cantrips)
- Warrior - Spellbreaker Elite Specialization (dagger, full counter, meditations)
- Revenant - Renegade Elite Specialization (shortbow, citadel orders, Kalla Scorchrazor)

What A Nice Guild [NICE]

The Penny Arcade Community guild in Guild Wars 2 is called What A Nice Guild [NICE]. We play on the Fort Aspenwood server, although guilds are cross-server and we have members who play on other servers. It is easiest to participate in guild activities if FA is your home server, but you can join in most activities (with the exception of World vs World pvp). To permanently switch servers, you have to pay for a transfer or delete all your characters. Fort Aspenwood is a North American server, but we have plenty of people from other regions including Australia and Europe playing with us on FA, so don’t let that dissuade you if you’re located in another region.

Commanders:
@Leandriell (kalzana.3192, Leandriell)
@Ky13 (kyonethree.9814, Teldra)

Officers:
@CorriganX (CorriganX.9685, Corrigan)
@Draygo (Draygo.9473, Delarme)
@Enig (Ansatz.6498, Ansatz Coppertooth)
@Lagnar (Lagnar.9281, RichardRears)
@Kylindra (Kylindra.1794, Sage Persephone)
@mojojoeo (MojoGroove.8253, Mojojoeo)

Rear Admirals:
@Geod (Geod.5024, Geod)

To join the guild:
You can ask for an invite by posting your account name (<name>.####) in this thread, and one of the officers will invite you. Alternately, you’re welcome to whisper in game one of the leaders or officers above. Anyone from the PA community may join the guild, along with any friends and family. Being active on the forums is encouraged but not required. Guild policies are loosely based on the PA forum rules – don’t be a dick. If you have any issues with anyone, please contact a guild officer.

Guilds are limited to 500 members, so occasionally we have to cull inactive members. If you find yourself removed, just ask for an invite again.

Teamspeak 3 Server

The guild has a Teamspeak 3 server, thanks to Draygo. Download TS at http://www.teamspeak.com. Hop on for guild events or just to hang out! Even if you don’t have a mic, just listening will help greatly for coordination.
Server IP: 66.135.55.177:9999
Password: pa
Admins: Draygo, Enig, Geod, Teldra, Sage Persephone, Mojojoeo, Leandriell, Lagnar, Corrigan

The below spoiler contains the Penny Arcade Guild Wars 2 Teamspeak FAQ, written by Draygo for everyone's convenience. Please refer to it for any queries regarding the GW2 PA TS3 setup. Server seats 100+ people and everything you want to know about it can be found below or by asking Draygo, as he put it together and has been hosting these servers for years.

Q) Where do I get it:

Download teamspeak here: http://www.teamspeak.com/?page=downloads
You can get teamspeak for windows, mac, and linux. As well as your Ithing and your android, if you so prefer.

Q) Cool, I installed it, now what?

Now you must connect to our totally awesome server. In order to do that you must first run teamspeak. Then hit Connections at the top. Select Connect.

Now you must enter the server details:

Server Address: 66.135.59.185:9999
Nickname: Your forum or In Game Name
Password: pa

Q) What does the banner in the top right do?

The community thread banner when clicked on will open the most recent guild wars 2 thread on penny arcade.

Q) How do I add a class or race icon next to my name?

You do this by right clicking yourself, put your mouse over server group, then left click any of the categories named with the race or class you want to choose. You can uncheck them at any time to remove the icon.

Q) So is there a skin/theme for this?

Yes and you can download it from our lobby. Right click the lobby, and select open file browser. You will see the installer file at the top. Download and run that file to skin your client.

In order to activate the theme/skin you need to go to settings->options, and click design on the left.

Then select Theme and change it to PA Guild Wars 2.

Q) Who made the theme?

Draygo did.

Q) How do I change my name?

Right click yourself and select change nickname. You can do this at any time. Do not change your name to impersonate an admin.

Q) What rules can I expect?

Don't be a dick. No personal attacks except 'silly goose', forum rules apply. If it is not appropriate on the forums, it is also not appropriate in teamspeak.

Q) Someone is breaking the rules, or is being disruptive, but no server admins are online. How do I complain.

First, I hope you can all be nice and resolve disputes by yourselves. If someone is being a dick, you can fill out a complaint. Right click someone and click make a complaint. Do not abuse this feature. If 5 people complain about one person in a short amount time, that person will be temp banned from the server. Do not abuse this. Admins will see the complaints that lead to the temp banning and will be unhappy to fix it.

Q) Can I make my own channels?

Yes!
Teamspeak is setup that you can make your own channels in any of the major channels (Except Admin HQ, Lobby, and Afk, for obvious reasons) First enter the channel you want to make the sub-channel in. Right click the parent channel and select, create sub channel. You can enter a name, even a password, as well as set any description you want. After you create the channel, make sure the Audio Codec selected is high enough audio quality.

Right click the channel you created and click edit channel. Click the audio tab and increase the Quality slider. Also decrease the latency slider to reduce lag time. Quality 7, latency 1 are the recommended settings.
These channels are temp only, when the last person leaves them they are automatically cleaned up.

The person who created the channel is the op of the channel and can kick people from the channel (not server). So if you created your own channel and want to remove someone, you can password protect it and remove the troublesome individual.

Q) Is there an overlay plugin?

Yes. There is a built in overlay plugin. To enable it, select tools and then Install Overwolf. inimal mode only displays the one person who is talking, the other mode displays everyone in your channel even those that are talking.

Q) Does teamspeak work with my G15 keyboard.

Yes. There is a plugin for that. Pretty easy to configure again settings->plugins, and enable the G15 keyboard.

Q) I’m seeing graphical glitches when I use the overlay. How do I fix that?

Here's how to get the overlay working without graphical glitches:

1. Go to Settings->Plugins in TS3.
2. Select GW2.exe in the Profile dropdown.
3. Uncheck all the Direct3D options, except for Direct3D 9 (which is what GW2 uses).
4. Switch to Input tab
5. Check "Enable Mouse Poll" and "Use in-game" cursor
6. Switch to extended, and check "Used ID3DDevice:Present hook..." (This is what fixes the animations not showing in GW2)

Guild Schedule
Guild Google Calendar
The guild runs various activities together on a regular basis. A schedule can be seen below, and is also in the Guild Message of the Day (MOTD). All times are Pacific.

Guild Missions
Sunday 19:00 Server, 20:00 UK, Noon Pacific, 3pm Eastern
Guild Wars 2 has activities designed for large groups called Guild Missions. PvE Missions include Bounty, Trek, Puzzle, Challenge, and Race. There are also WvW Missions such as capturing objective and PvP Missions such as winning matches or points. Rewards for participation include commendations, rares, gold and chances at a precursor or other exotic items.

At Sunday Missions, we’ll attempt at each PvE mission possible with the with the number of people who attend that week. If there’s an easy WvW mission, we’ll follow with that for those on Fort Aspenwood. We’ll explain what’s going on as we go along, so please hop on Teamspeak! You can also earn the dubious honour of the pungeon master rank and to choose a piece of music to challenge Lea to play in game the next week.

PvP missions require a coordinated group of 5, so if you have one let an officer know and we’ll kick one off for you.

You can earn personal credit (rewards) for each mission once a week. Credit resets every week on Sunday night, so Monday starts a new week for guild missions.

Guild Competition Events
Occasionally, the guild will also host a guild competition for prizes. These events are scheduled by officers at various times, and have included jumping puzzle races, or scavenger hunts.

Guild Hall
[NICE] has a Guild Hall! You can get there by opening your guild interface and hitting the Guild Hall button in the upper right corner. You do not need to own HoT or be a certain level to go there. Our current home is in the Gilded Hollows, one of the two Guild Hall areas available in HoT.

Guild Hall amenities include:

Tavern Buffs - Free 24 hour buffs you can get from the bartender
Guild Portal - Free travel to Lion’s Arch and any of this week’s guild mission waypoints
Guild Arena - Battle your friends!
Guild Bank Access - by the central waypoint
Personal Bank Access - via the Scribing Station
Harvesting Nodes - Once a day gathering nodes that can sometimes drop rare materials needed to craft guild armor

How Can I Help Build the Guild Hall?
The Guild Hall requires a lot of resources. Building and upgrading the guild hall is meant to be a massive, guild-wide effort and everyone’s contributions are both needed and appreciated. Every time we upgrade something or earn a new buff, it costs both guild currency (that we earn from guild missions and over time) and various crafting materials.

To see what we need right now, go to the Guild Hall and talk to the NPC by the waypoint to see the Guild Treasury. The Guild Treasury is NOT the same as the Guild Bank! It is a deposit-only store of materials that we have collectively contributed to the upgrades we’re working on for the guild. You can mouse over each item listed to see how many we need, how many we have, and what upgrades the materials are for. Materials needed range from potatoes to spiritwood planks, so anyone’s contributions can be useful. Especially hard to get items include: Potions of PvP Reward from PvP dailies, Ley-Line Infused Tools, and mystic coins.

[NICE] Guild Resources

Guild Tumblr Blog
We use this thread for most of our coordination, but we also have a Tumblr site that Vivixenne created to post guild information, builds, and other guides. http://gw2nice.tumblr.com/

Guild Bank
Sage manages the guild bank, and has the following rules for using it. Check them out below!

- What the Guild Bank Is -

The guild bank is storagefor useful items that people have generously donated to the Guild Bank instead of selling them. It’s also the place to donate things to the guild itself, like scribing materials and siege blueprints.

What the Guild Bank Isn’t
The guild bank is not a trash can, please don’t dump stuff there just because you don’t want it!

We will cull stuff that is not meant to be there, keep the Bank tidy, and generally keep an eye on things. If you are abusing the guild bank you will probably get a sternly-worded letter from Sage. Sage knows a lot of very large, very stern words, so probably just use your common sense before you take out a massive pile of stuff or dump a massive pile of stuff. In general, please take what you’ll use and deposit what other people might like to use. If you’re too much of a butt then you will probably lose your bank privileges, so don’t be a butt.

- What to Deposit -

Useful items like the following:

crafting materials
superior runes and sigils
high quality buff items
dyes
stuff that’s needed for a collection/event that you have extras of (let people know you did this)

- Withdrawing -

You are free to withdraw from the bottom two sections of the Guild Bank (Deep Cave, Treasure Trove). The top section of the guild bank is accessible only by officers and Veteran Novices. It contains a communal pile of siege blueprints, scribing materials, and prizes for guild missions. Feel free to donate items to this category, they are appreciated!

Also note that in order to prevent compromised accounts from raiding the guild bank, anyone who has been gone from the game for an extended period will have their status set to “Inactive”. If you find yourself set to Inactive and you would like to be set back to Comrade, just ask an officer.

Scribing
Scribing is a different from other crafting disciplines because it is intertwined with the guild hall and guild resources. It is also fairly expensive, and not really intended for personal use. If you want to be a scribe so you can help decorate the guild or make group WvW consumables, you’ll need special permissions.

There are two special ranks in the guild for scribes: Scribe, and Veteran Novice. Scribe is the basic rank you’ll need to do decorations. Veteran Novice adds the additional privilege of being able to access the top portion of the guild bank (where we keep the expensive stuff and also scribing materials). If you want one of these ranks, you’ll need to talk to an officer, who will let you know all the various rules and complications involved in scribing. If you want the bank access in addition to the decoration permission, you’ll need to have two-factor authentication on your account for security reasons.

Guild Wars 2 Resources

General
Guild Wars 2 Official Site
Guild Wars 2 Wiki
Patch Notes
Dulfy Guides
GW2 Subreddit

NICE Guild Links
NICE Tumblr
Guild Bounty Spreadsheet

Guides
Guild Mission Guide by Vivixenne
WvW Guide by Yougottawanna
Combo Field and Finishers by Vivixenne
Primer on Leveling Up by Vivixenne

Other Resources
GW2Efficiency (Search your account, find best ways of crafting things, TP info and more)
Event timers and more!
Gw2spidy (Trading Post Data)
Dynamic Crafting Guide
Dungeon Guide
WvW Matchups
MetaBattle (Builds)
Armor Gallery

Crowfall is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG, for anyone born in a cave). By that, we mean that the game is played online in a persistent shared environment with thousands (and thousands, and thousands…) of other players.

We think Crowfall is a very different flavor of MMO – internally, we call it a Throne War Simulator. That’s because we’ve designed it to be a very different game experience. It has elements in common with strategy games, political simulators, survival games… and a few elements that don’t really exist anywhere else.

About the Creators:

J Todd Coleman brings a wealth of creative and entrepreneurial experience to ArtCraft. He founded Reliant Data Systems (acquired by Compuware Corporation in 1999), Wolfpack Studios, Inc. (acquired by Ubi Soft in 2004) and was the VP of production and creative director for KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc. As the co-creator and creative lead ofShadowbane, Wizard101 and Pirate101, Coleman has built a reputation for pushing the boundaries of MMO design. His games have received numerous awards (including Game of the Year, Audience Choice and Family Game of the Decade) and he was personally recognized by Gamasutra as one of the top 50 developers in the industry and by Massive Gamer magazine as the #1 Most Influential Game Developer in the World.

Gordon Walton has been building games and managing game development for more than 35 years, with the last 20 years managing massively multiplayer online games. He has been VP of online at Origin Systems, managing Ultima Online, VP and executive producer at Maxis, managing the Sims Online and VP and executive producer at Sony Online Entertainment on Star Wars: Galaxies. Walton then went on to become the Co-studio GM at BioWare Austin, on Star Wars: The Old Republic and was most recently the VP and executive producer at Disney Playdom. Walton has personally developed more than 35 games and overseen the development of more than 200 games.

About the Character System:

All players have a single account-level crow that represents the sum total of all their learning. This crow can possess the bodies (known as Vessels) of the various “Archetype” classes –a race/class combo the player wants to play. (Knights, Confessors, Champions, etc)

When a crow possesses a body for the first time, they can customize it, very much like character creation from any online game. The player starts the vessel creation process with a set number of creation points. Each archetype has a point cost. That cost varies depending on the base attributes and skills of that archetype. For example, Centaurs have a higher starting Strength, so they are more expensive. This means they have less (fewer) points left over to spend on advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages and disadvantages are elements that further customize that vessel. They represent specific talents, traits or backstory elements that change that particular vessel in unique ways.

For example: “Eagle Eye” might grant that vessel an increase to accuracy with ranged weapons. “Dim-witted” might lower its Intellect, but grant points that could be spent to further increase its Strength.

Advantages cost points, disadvantages give additional points to spend. There is a limit to the number of advantages and disadvantages a vessel can start with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKj36GJj_i8

10 Years ago EverQuest started it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDSh6qYqxxg

The intro movie, prepared you for something completely different than what you were getting. What were you getting? You got your nuts placed an a smiths anvil, where he forged em into mighty balls, that could take anything any game since threw at you, or he just smashed them into little bits, and you are forever now ball-less because of it.

The difficulty level of this game is unmatched by todays standard MMO's (I know, UA was hardcore, and I'm sure there are some shitty korean MMOs out there that literally rape your mother if you don't perform well in the game.. that's why I said standard!)

Choose an evil race? Well then you've just eliminated 90% of the vendors in game. Choose an evil class, but a good race? Eh maybe you can sell in most of your town, but a lot of other towns will tell you to fuck off and die.

This game made me feel smaller and insignificant than any other MMO. And that was great. Few people were heroes, we were all shitheads killing spiders. Running to guards when we got in over our heads. Fighting over a +2 Dex ring off a dervish cutthroat. Yelling "CAMP CHECK!" As soon as we zoned into a new area. There were no instances, there was no fair. There was kill stealing, training, and general assholery all around. And that's what forged the community. "Bill ninja looted a Stilleto Dirk! Don't ever group with him" "FUCK YOU I"M THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN USE IT!"

Ahh the memories are pouring in, but most of it is from the low end game. Before you really knew how to play. Your first group going into blackburrow, and getting down in there exploring the den of Gnolls, only to be trained otu by some prick who wanted that camp spot.

First time you ran along the Karana river, and that soothing music kicked in. Or when you got to the end of the river and noticed the band of barbarians named after Metallica. :p The aviak roost in South Karana, the undead hordes of Kithicor Forest coming out at night. Trying to navigate through Neriak, or finding your first trainer in Qeynos (it's behind the door, through the false wall, through another false wall, down a false floor, to the right, the left, the right, through a false door, and bam, there you go your trainer! Who wouldn't have guessed that)

Good times, bad times, this thread is about memories, to one of the games that started it all. What have you got to tell?

Welcome space-robot/loli/androgynus teenager to the wonderful world of Phantasy Star Online 2. Well technically, 'universe' is more apt or really inter-dimensional, timey-wimey existence.

So let us address the elephant in the room first. No there still is no NA release yet, it is still "in the works". Yes, you can in fact play on Japanese servers with no issue. And yes, I will tell you how to do that (point of fact, it is pretty easy). So if you are already a seasoned Phantasy Star player and just want to jump right in than head to the bottom of the OP. For the rest of you who want to know more, pull up a seat (figuratively of course, as I assume you are already literally sitting down).

What is PSO2? And P.S. you misspelled 'fantasy'.

Okay, first off don't be an ass, it is a proper noun.

Secondly. Phantasy Star Online 2 is (surprise, surprise) the sequel to Phantasy Star Online which made it's first debut in the way, way long ago on a little known and misunderstood console called the Dreamcast.

PSO2 is a hack n' slashy/shooty (none of this hotbar combat bid'niss here) MMO-lite game in which you take on the role of a newly minted Ark (an intrepid space hero) who explores dangerous alien locales for loot/glory/sometimes genocide.

I call the game "MMO-Lite" as it has a solid blend of singleplayer/multiplayer elements.

The game has a story, complete with cut-scenes, story events, boss fights, and other JRPG staples. However, it is also online much like the original Guild Wars. You take on missions either solo or with 3 other buddies you can conquer the world.

The player hub area is an Ark Ship (each server is 1 Ark Ship and all the ships make up the Ark Fleet, which I thought was a nice touch). Ark Ships are massive flying nations that were sent out in to the unknown to find new life and brutally murder the shit out of it (at least that is my impression). Though if you want the official story, then fine, here you go.

Embark on an endless journey through the galaxy...!

Home to three (Axen's note: actually four now) species - Humans, the Newman, and the CAST - the fleet known as "Oracle" continues its journey across the vast expanse of interstellar space between inhabitable worlds. When it first became possible for this fleet to travel beyond the reaches of our galaxy, a new history was born.

In the year 283 of the New Light, "Oracle" traversed numerous galaxies and discovered countless worlds.

In the far reaches of outer space, grounds known as "Arks" were set up to explore and research newly discovered planets. Their purpose was to move from one planet to another, helping to build and advance the infrastructures of civilization.

Seeking new adventure and new opportunity, different Arks work together in order to explore the depths of space and discover what my be waiting.

Now, as new Arks set off to explore unknown regions of space, a new journey begins...

Okay I get the premise, but how does it play?

Well, that is easy, it is straight up action. The five D's of Dodgeball are in full effect here; dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge.

You can lock on to a target to help (and it does) facilitate combat, but just because you are locked on does not mean you will automatically hit (at least with range weapons). Enemies can (and will) dodge your attacks. Luckily you can do the same to them. You also have to keep in mind terrain as well. If you shoot a fireball at a space-gorilla and he is behind a tree you will blow up that tree (literally, it is awesome) instead of hitting the space-gorilla.

As I mentioned before, this isn't standard MMO hotbar combat. It is absolutely action oriented.

You can have three weapons active at any one time (at least). Though you are free to switch out what those weapons are whenever you want.

You can learn a ton of different attacks and level up those attacks, but you have to pick and choose the ones you want to actually use in combat (they're pretty much all awesome and you can change what abilities you are using whenever you want).

So as an example, my guy is a Force (basically magic type). I have a staff, gunblade, and a thingy (techno-magic book dealie). My current skill loadout is standard attack (mouse 1), a fireball (mouse 2), a freezing ice attack (shift-mouse 1), and a defensive spell (shift-mouse 2).

Enemies (normally) telegraph their attacks. Sometimes you only have a split second, other times you could go make a sandwich and still have time to react.

All in all I really enjoy the combat.

Two other neat things to mention.

One, you can befriend NPCs and eventually gain their contact info so you can invite them to join you on quests if you're the loner type.

Two, you ever play Dragon's Dogma? You know the Pawn system? Basically in PSO2 you can turn your dude in to a recruitable NPC that other players hire to bring along on missions. Not sure what, if any, bonus you gain from it.

So what are my race/class options?

For this I'll just straight up copy the info from here (I'll talk more about that link in a moment as it is important).

RACES:

Humans are balanced towards physical strength and photon (Axen's note: read 'magic'), they can adapt to every class.

Newmans are skilled in handling the photon. To compensate for their physical weakness, their photon sensitivity is high, unrivaled by the other races.

Casts are the machine race, but since their bodies are artificial, their handling of the photon is weak, to compensate for this, they have an exquisitely firm body.

cboihWL.jpg?1

Dumans (Axen's note: sometimes 'Dewman') have strong offensive skills but low defensive attributes, and thus need to rely on evasion in combat.

The actual stat differences between races isn't all that big and you can get away with playing whatever class with whatever race without issue.

CLASSES:

Hunter

One of the three primary classes which excels in close-ranged combat.
Their stat growth focuses on S-ATK, S-DEF and HP for increased survivability even when fighting enemies alone.
Weapons can also be temporarily enhanced through the use of gears, which depending on the weapon could affect charging speed, range, or power.
Skill enhancements for Guard and Step are highly recommended since they allow you to quickly dodge or block incoming attacks without taking any damage.

Ranger

One of the three primary classes which excels in mid-ranged combat.
Their stat growth focuses on R-ATK and R-DEF which is mainly used for ranged combat.
Rangers specialize in attacking weak points with skills that allow you to weaken certain spots on enemies or further increase damage to those vulnerabilities.
In addition, Rangers also inflict bonus damage when performing head shots since the head automatically becomes a weak point for them.

Force

One of the three primary classes which excels in long-ranged combat through the use of technics.
Their stat growth focuses on T-ATK and T-DEF which is mainly used for technics, but pretty low on HP.
Force can specialize in either fire, ice or lightning attribute, each having their own pros and cons.
Since they can use technics to heal themselves, they can survive without the use of healing items.

Braver

Added as a 4th primary class since Episode 2, they excel in both short-ranged and long-ranged combat.
Their stat growth focuses on S-ATK, R-ATK and DEX, which gives them great advantage when attacking at the cost of having lower defenses.
The katana can also be temporarily enhanced through the use of gears, which further increases the damage output of the weapon during counter attacks.
Weak Stance works great on bosses and other large enemies due to their exploitable weak points being lockable and easy to target.

Fighter

Secondary class that branched off from Hunter, which also excel in close-ranged combat.
Similar to Hunter, their stat growth focuses on S-ATK, S-DEF and HP for increased survivability even when fighting enemies alone.
Their weapons can also be temporarily enhanced through the use of gears, which depending on the weapon could evade incoming attacks or damage nearby foes.
Skill enhancements for Brave and Wise Stances are highly recommended since they allow you great advantages depending on your position.

Gunner

Secondary class that branched off from Ranger, which excels in mid-ranged to close-ranged combat.
Their stat growth focuses on R-ATK and R-DEF which is mainly used for ranged combat.
Although Gunners can also equip rifles, they can't use it properly as a Ranger does since they don't have all the weak point enhancements.
Instead, they focus more on chain combos with the twin machineguns which makes the finishing move a lot deadly.

Techter

Secondary class that branched off from Force, which excels in close-ranged to long-ranged combat.
Unlike Force, their stat growth focuses on S-ATK and S-DEF which is mainly used for close-ranged combat.
Techters can specialize in either wind, light or dark attribute, each having their own pros and cons.
They also have a few support skills that can be useful for the whole party, which enables them to fight at the front line or at the back.

Also, you can freely change between the classes and each class keeps track of its own level.

Each class can use several different weapons (and let me tell you, there are a lot to pick from). From bows, swords, great swords, twin blades, gunblades, dual pistols, machine guns, sniper rifles, magic thingies, space-whips, staves, and wands (to name a few).

Out in the wild and from merchants you can get "discs" that teach you new abilities for a particular weapon. I haven't delved to deep in to it with PSO2 yet as all I find are sword/gun techniques and I use staves.

Alright, so how does it all go down?

Well once you have created a character and completed the tutorial/prologue you'll be dumped off in to your CampShip. This is your own little drop ship complete with storage, market, recruitment station, teleport pad to the Ark Ship, and quest board.

There are a lot of different things to do, but I'll run you through an average job.

From the quest board (or NPC) you will get a job. In the beginning these are basic "Find and kill X", but as you progress they become somewhat more complicated. It honestly reminds me a bit of Monster Hunter.

So say you take the job to exterminate space-wolves. You'll head to the planet and then your mission starts.

The are you are in is basically a zone and somewhere in it is your target. Of course there are other mobs that will get in your way.

But that ain't all. There are random events and random cut-scenes you may or may not run in to.

You can repeat a mission and have different things happen each time.

As you move through the zone you can explore a bit and find treasure, special mobs, events, what-have-you.

When you find your target the game will let you know and a very nice lady will give you the details. You fight and kill your target and the mission is complete. You can then teleport back to your CampShip and get your mission debrief.

Then you do it again.

As I mentioned though, there are a lot of other things to do.

Apart from the standard mission board quests you also have story missions, client mission (where an NPC requests a specific thing which may or may not be tied to certain monsters), the Matter Board (which I can only describe as one half achievements with rewards and another half extra missions), and the occasional fleet assault wherein the Ark Fleet is attacked by a monstrous entity and it is all hands on deck to fight it off. Which, btw, is awesome, as the combined efforts of all the players online count towards defeating it and it looks a little something like this:

Well that all sounds neat, so bottom line, how much does this cost?

Absolutely nothing. The game is free to play. It does have a cash shop, but from what I can tell it's basically just fluff. Potions to increase XP, crafting results, costumes, and the like. From what I've been told there really isn't anything in there you need in order to fully enjoy the game.

Okay I'm interested, but wouldn't this game be all Moonspeak?

The PSO fanbase is, if nothing else, dedicated. As such the fans have created several translation patches for the story itself (which is surprisingly well done), items, monster names, quests, and so forth. Some things are still in Moonspeak, but for the most part these are just fulff like item descriptions and quest story text.

Well, how do I go about getting this then?

Okay, first off follow the instructions in this guide in order to register and download the game.

One of the instructions calls for you to 'link' your SegaID with the game, but I never did that and it worked fine. All in all the process is no different then registering for any other game, and Hell if you have Google Chrome auto-translate for you then it is even easier. The hardest part is the Hiragana Captcha you have to decipher. It can be done and that guide has links to help.

Now after you have downloaded the game and created a SegaID you will want to download the PSO2 Tweaker. This is a fan-made launcher that will (among other things) download the latest translation patches and keep those patches up-to-date. It makes the entire process painless.

tl/dr

Step 1: Follow the instructions in this guide (don't worry about "linking" your SegaID to the game).
Step 2: Go here and download the PSO2 Tweaker/English Launcher.
Step 3: While still at Arks-Layer.com it is recommended you download the Story Patch as well (it is 2.5 gigs). The PSO2 Tweaker will install it for you after you have downloaded it and it will continue to keep it up-to-date.
Step 4: Launch the game (the normal way the first time, then through the PSO2 Tweaker afterwards just to be safe) and log in.

PROTIP: If you used a capital letter in your SegaID username it doesn't matter. The login screen does not seem to recognize capital letters. So save yourself hours of grief and remember to type your user name in lower case when you log in to the game. Seriously, as an example say when I create my SegaID I typed Axen is my user name. When I go to log in to PSO2 and type 'Axen' it will not recognize it. So I'd have to type 'axen' instead. It could be that I am crazy and simply screwed up, but just a friendly piece of advice in case you run in to trouble.

Fantastic Links!

This blog has numerous guides and links to helpful things. Some of it is up-to-date and some is not. Still, super handy to have bookmarked.
PSO2.Cirnopedia is the preeminent wiki for PSO2 info and data. Pretty much anything you need to know is here and it is constantly updating.
PSO2 Symbol Art Editor. You can have your own personal "graffiti" tag (for lack of a better word). You can have one for your store, your character, your team, or whatever. This editor allows you to import/export Symbol Art from outside the game making it super-fucking-easy to have bang'n art.

Check these videos out to see it all in motion.

Showing off a 1v1 boss fight. Check out them moves!

This is a multi-party boss fight, not unlike a raid.

This one is a great video for so many reasons. Chiefly showing off how smooth it is and the English patch.

Heh, or this one where the party went on a normal mission only to have a random event happen in which the party got abducted and had to fight evil versions of their own characters.

What server, bro?

Most Westerners play on Ship 2 'Ur'.

Oh yeah and sometimes things like this happen:

Hey, I will copy in a first post once I talk to a mod. How /you/ doin'?

Nobody plays LOTRO anymore because it sucks.

Black Desert Online

So what is this? Well it's another Kor- whoa, wait, wait! Don't go! Just give me a minute of your time!

Ahem, Black Desert Online is a Korean action sandbox MMO. If you've played the recent Blade and Soul than I can tell you the combat is very similar.

If you haven't then let me explain.

The combat is basically a third-person action game. You have to dodge attacks, position yourself, counter, and sometimes sit back and wait for an opening. There are no auto-attacks in this game, for you or the enemy. If you dodge an attack (any attack) then you're not going to take damage. Though the same applies for the enemy.

Not unlike a fighting game, each of your attacks create opportunities for combos. No hotbar, tab-targeting combat here!

There are also no healing classes. Speaking of!

PA Presence Info

We are on the server Orwen . PA Guild name is Arcadians. Typically, we hang out in Valencia O1 which is one of the channels you can pick from when logging in. You can switch from one to another, so if you pick the wrong one, no big deal. Guild invites have to be done in person in game. Please tag @Arthil if you want to get into the guild so he can coordinate a meeting point.

Please post your info on this spreadsheet courtesy of @Arthil
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WWmYtkktX50_hgQKVjtoS4WdEsG6WzqjEz9XxZZJteE/edit?usp=sharing

Classes

Unlike most games, you don't pick your gender then pick a class. Classes are associated with either male or female. That said, some classes do have a male and female counterpart. Though while very similar, each one play a bit differently.

Warrior: Classic sword and board guy. Surprisingly mobile and can actually block all damage from the front with their shield. Don't let the tankiness fool you, Warriors have great DPS (spoilers: this will be a common theme with all classes).

Valkyrie: The female counterpart of the Warrior. While not as mobile as the Warrior the Valkyrie have a number of abilities at their disposal that make them even better tanks that the Warrior. Plenty of knock downs and shield skills along with group buffs. And yes, they can still DPS.

Sorceress: Wiki page is rather empty, which is surprising since this is one of the more popular classes.

Anyway, remember up there when I said "some classes have a male and female counterpart"? Well Sorceress is one of those exceptions.

Sorceresses (Sorceressi?) are, basically dark magic wielding kung-fu masters. They are highly mobile and rely on combos and AoE skills. They're pretty powerful in the right hands, but can be very unforgiving to people who make mistakes.

Tamer: Another class which lacks a male counterpart. Tamers are summoners/ambush experts. Fast, mobile, and fantastic for hit-and-run tactics. Plus their kick ass wolf-pet-thing-made out of ink helps to create general chaos in battle. For solo PvE-ing Tamers are very newbie friendly.

Ranger Another female only class.

Rangers are, surprise surprise, long range DPS. They have some AoEs to stun/snare enemies, but their biggest advantage is their range. Staying out of reach is the order of the day so some players may not enjoy the kite-ing style of gameplay. That said Rangers are a solid choice of PvE and PvP.

Wizard/Witch They're classic, Merlin styled spell casters. Absolutely devastating spells, but long cast times. Still, for totally destroying large groups of enemies in a short amount of time the Wizard/Witch takes the crown. A Witch is the female counterpart to the Wizard. Very similar to Wizards, in fact they are pretty much identical.

Beserker: RAWWWWR KILL EVERYTHING RAAAAWWRR!

Do you just want to jump right in to a group of enemies and become a whirling force of death? Beserker is for you! While probably one of the least mobile classes the Beserker absolutely excels at jumping in to the frontline and causing total-fucking-chaos.

Oh and they can pile-drive people!

That's it for the current classes, though in the future NA/EU will get access to some Samurai and Ninja themed classes.

The World

The world is pretty damn big. From what I understand it'd take a player around three hours to go from one end to the other.

There is no Fast-Travel. However the game does have an auto-pilot system so you can set a waypoint and your character will run/ride there while following the roads.

No loading! Seriously, once you are in game you will never see a loading screen. The only exception would be special dungeons and the like.

For the rest of the tidbits about the world I have to share some videos, because, goddamn, you need to see it.

There are several large cities in the game, this is a tour of one setting to give you an idea of what you'll be dealing with:

To give you a sense of how big the world is and the no loading thing here is another video that takes you (pretty much) from coast to coast.

This is a Sandbox game

This is one key point to keep in mind. Black Desert is, at the end of the day, a sandbox game. While there are quests (in fact a FUCK TON of quests) at the end of the day much of what you do is up to you.

Do you want to tame and breed the best race/war horses in the realm? Have at it!

Do you want to create a merchant trade empire? Get crack'n! You can transport goods and have employees crafting/gathering for you!

Relax and fish? Hell you can set sail on your own fishing vessel and bring in BIG fish.

Which leads me too,

All the shit you can do that ain't fight'n!

Gathering, Crafting, and Trading play a pretty big role in the game.

In fact, watch these two videos:

And do note that some of the things he talks about are Korean specific and not necessarily how the NA/EU version works, but the over all idea should be the same.

Man, there is a lot of shit to do

I honestly can't list and explain all the crap you can do. Let's just say that Combat/Questing is, like, only 30% of the game.

PvP? PvP!?

So yes there is in fact PvP in the game. It comes in a couple of flavors, but for a quick and dirty run down you have:

Guild vs. Guild: Join a guild and fight other guilds. Sieges and the like won't be in at launch, but will be coming with the first major patch (about 4 weeks they say). If your Guild is at war with another Guild then you can kill or be killed by your enemy without any penalties.

Open World: At level 50 you will automatically become flagged for PvP. The system is designed to strongly encourage PKs to fight PKs. For instance, being a PKK is far more rewarding to the player than being a PK. In fact just ganking random innocents nets you nothing but problems. For instance, if you are a big enough asshole when you're killed you'll drop gear, other equipment will break and become useless, you'll spawn in a random stot, face debuffs, and basically be a giant juicy target for everyone. As an innocent you will drop no gear and experience to penalty. The exception (AFAIK) is when you are transporting trade goods. You'll drop one item when killed, but as the video above details you don't really ever have to transport trade goods yourself.

Arena: Very much the classic PvP option. Just an open arena for you and your buddies, or anyone else for that matter, to jump in and kill each other.

Instaced PvP: Basic 3v3 mode.

Crimson Battlefield: After level 50 you can join in. Basically a giant melee of two teams fighting it out.

Siege: GvG siege fights, won't be in at launch. Expect it about 4-ish weeks later.

Random Tidbits
The Devs for the NA/EU version have been super cool and routinely ask the community what they'd like to see, what systems should be changed, etc. Since Westerners have different gaming tastes compared to our fellow Asian gamers, the NA/EU Devs have been giving quite a lot of leeway to change things to appeal more to the western market. So, yay!

One random thing the Devs are doing (that they totally didn't have to do) is having regional accents for the NPCs. Instead of having all NPCs speak generic ye olde English or what-have-you. The NPCs from various regions will have a specific dialect. American English, British, Aussie, Irish, Scottish, and Arabian to start. It helps add a lot more flavor to the various lands you will explore.

As you may have heard, the only way (AFAIK) to get XP is by killing mobs. You do not get XP from quests. You get money, materials, and reputation from quests. That isn't to say that the game is a grind. In fact it doesn't take long at all to reach level 50 and that's kind of the point. The game is a sandbox. Getting to 50 teaches you your class, the world, and various mechanics. Once at 50 the world is your oyster. PvP it up, craft, build a trade empire, sail the seas, fish, explore dungeons and ruins for treasure, hunt down world bosses, etc etc.

There are several mounts in the game. Horses, Donkeys, Camels, and Elephants. Horses, Camels, and Elephants can be tamed in the wild. Donkeys, IIRC, are just bought. Camels and Elephants are the only mounts that can cross the Black Desert. You can breed Horses (and maybe Camels and Elephants) to increase various stats. You can also get, make, buy various accessories for your mounts (saddles, barding, etc)

Guilds can own a War Elephant!

You can also start impromptu horse races with your friends!

You can climb up damn near anything!

The character creator is fucking amazing and free right now from their website!

Holy shit I forgot about Housing! Housing is nuts in this. Damn near any building you see in those videos can be bought.

*This Intro post brought to you by @Axen *

After several years of waiting, Blizzard brought back Vanilla World of Warcraft in the form of WoW Classic. Much to their surprise, WoW classic launched to more demand than the original launch of the game.

WoW classic is running the 1.12 patch with upgraded graphics, some quality of life improvements, and a few other tweaks from the original WoW such as upgraded spell usage for the server.

WoW Classic is Live as of the 27th of August.

PA Guild info:
Alliance PVE - Pagle (Sixteen Daggers)
Alliance PVP - Fairbanks (Schizzo of Exuberance)
Horde PVP - Fairbanks (The Ded Boyz)
Alliance PVP - Fairbanks (Startlingly Retro)

May 2020, pre-orders available now.

First off, the blurb.

Legend has led generations of explorers to the supernatural frontier known as Aeternum. Rich in a powerful substance known as Azoth, which many believe to be the source of eternal life, Aeternum has beckoned both the pure of heart and the wicked to its shores.

These intrepid individuals are harried at every turn by a malevolent force, humanoid creatures warped and twisted by a malignant element known as the Corruption. The Corruption, as its name suggests, corrupts life it comes into contact with to varying degrees, based on exposure and the constitution of the host. Some are left as bestial husks, while others are elevated to power unimaginable.

When not facing down the Corrupted, explorers are beset upon by rival companies of humans who are just as eager to conquer and exploit Aeternum. Life in New World is a harsh contest of survival, and only the brave and cunning can hope to fight back the spreading darkness.

Or in short:

New World is a new game being developed by Amazon Game Studios. They bill it as a survival action MMO that takes place in, by all accounts, an absurdly large game world. This world was hand crafted and features a wide variety of biomes. From your standard woods, plains, mountains to more exotic stuff like mind-tripy neon murder forests. To the best of my knowledge they've not stated how big the world is, but the Devs claim it can rather comfortably hold a thousand players (with no zones or loading screens).

Wait, isn't this that game that had some rather uncomfortable tones of Colonialism?

Yes, you are correct. Thankfully the Devs took the criticism to heart as it certainly wasn't their intent. Now the game world has no indigenous people. Everyone who is in Aeternum came there to obtain the power hidden within. So you don't need to feel any guilt over killing any of the NPCs. They also redesigned the armor and outfits from being 17th century colonial facsimiles to more 17th century fantasy. Think Bloodborne. Crazy armor, fantasy outfits, tricornes etc.

So what do you do in the game?

Excellent question! One that I will have to break down in to parts.

Crafting!

Everything in the game is made by players. Weapons, armor, outfits, tool, food, etc etc etc.

There are multiple crafting trees that players can specialize in. Everything from Blacksmithing to Wood Working to more esoteric arts. As with everything else in the game, the more you do the more your skill improves allowing you to unlock new things. Crafting is of vital importance.

Azoth is the magic stuff found in Aeternum and can be used to imbue power to weapons and armor. However, this stuff is unpredictable and the player cannot control what happens. In effect it will make something statistically better, but come with some sort of weird penalty. ie: "This Azoth empowered gun now does 3x the damage, but it also drains the users HP every time they fire it" or "this shield will never break, but the user will be temporarily blinded each time they successfully block." Just as hypothetical examples.

Of course you can't have crafting without gathering and New World ain't no slouch here. Every tree and rock is a resource. All the plants and animals too. Along with rarer. . . darker things.

Combat!

The land is a very dangerous place. Eldritch horrors, The Corrupted, infected animals, cultists and other explorers are all not very interested in having a polite discourse. The combat is action based and was inspired by Dark Souls. It isn't as hardcore as Dark Souls though. The Devs want it to be accessible, but still feel like your personal skill matters. From those who have gotten to try out the game it sounds like they succeeded on this front. Dodging, blocking, parrying are all in and everything you do consumes Stamina. However the Stamina system is fairly forgiving as the Devs want to minimize down time. So when you run out of Stamina if you're able to duck out of a fight it'll take but a moment to regain your Stamina. If not, then you're in for a bad time.

PvP is a thing too, but it is opt-in. If you don't want to take part you don't have to. Players are on a somewhat even playing field when it comes to PvP. Fancy equipment helps, but skill is often the deciding factor. Getting a solid hit in with a big (but slow) weapon can wipe out half a player's HP. Duels between two rather skilled players can actually take a bit of time as each tries to create an opening. Once they do though things end pretty quick. Even if you die it sounds like you merely respawn somewhere and don't lose anything.

There are a number of different Weapon Types that you can choose to specialize in and many of these Weapon Types have multiple trees to spec in to. One example given was the humble Hatchet. You could specialize in becoming a blender on two legs or go down the ranged tree and learn new and interesting ways to chuck hatchets at people. The Devs want a player's choice in weapons/armor to be one of personal preference. Very much like Dark Souls each weapon type has its own animations and fighting styles. Magic is also an option.

Companies and Territory Control!

Guilds in New World are called Companies. Companies can claim territory and build a settlement. Settlements can't be built just anywhere, there are specific locations in which a settlement can be built. A Company that does start building a settlement needs to decide how they want to specialize the town. Either Trade, Crafting or War. Each specialization comes with its own perks and special buildings. What these are I can't say at the moment, but it is supposed to be an important decision. The Company will set the tax rate for the territory and crafting fees as well.

Companies have a player cap of 50. This seems surprisingly low considering and that's the point. Town PvP sieges are fixed at 50v50. The Devs don't want blobs forming and steamrolling people.

If you don't like joining guilds or perhaps you're not in a Company that controls territory don't fret! People can build their own homes in territory that is controlled by a Company they are not a part of. The Company in charge can't destroy your home or anything like that. In fact the Company needs lots of non-Company players living in their territory. These people pay the taxes and crafting fees. They provide the mountain of resources the Company needs. They help tame the surrounding wilderness and can chase off ne'er-do-wells. All told it is expected that the amount of non-Company people in a territory would likely be 2 or 3 times the number of players that are actually in the Company. So treat these people well or they may unite and form their own Company to challenge your rule in a People's Revolt!

The territories themselves do not have access to all the resources a town would need. So Companies will have to import from other towns. However a Company can control as much territory as they want, assuming they can defend it all.

Town Sieges!

As I mentioned Town sieges are a thing. A Company looking to take control of a territory can buy (at no small expense) a Declaration of War and issue it to a Company that controls a settlement. The Defenders will have 24 hours to get their things in order before the siege begins. The sieges themselves are 50v50. Attackers need to breach the walls and destroy a rune-stone-thing. Defenders just need to run out the clock or kill enough of the enemy that they run out of respawns.

But what if you can't get all fifty of your Company members online for the fight? Well, this is were not being a dick comes in handy. You can supplement your forces with volunteers from the non-Company players living in your territory. As long as they feel like your Company is a better fit to be in charge you shouldn't have problems getting the soldiers you need.

However, if your taxes and crafting fees are rather high then the non-Company players may support the Attackers. Either by supplementing their forces or simply by providing material support.

What if you hate PvP, but still want to take part in a siege? Well the game has you covered! There is an army of the Corrupted (undead basically) that will occasionally siege a player town. Just like with the PvP siege, players will have advance notice. These towns will get attacked by a horde of undead "in the hundreds" so there will be plenty of work for all players!

PvE Stuff!

Originally the Devs weren't planning on having quests or a story or anything like that. Just random mobs. They have changed their minds on this. The game will have quests and a continuing story. Dungeons, caves full of danger and other mysteries are also waiting to be uncovered.

Random Stuff!

The game is classless. Players have access to a lot of different skill trees to flesh out their character. From crafting to fighting to more specialized things like Treasure Hunting and Bounty Hunting.

No P2W, but there will be a cosmetics shop.

The game is B2P.

Exploration in general is a pretty big part of the game.

May take on it.

I won't lie, I'm kind of excited for this. I actually enjoy those multiplayer survival games. However in this case instead of being an Early Access game that doesn't really go anywhere your looking at a studio with a big ass budget and serious talent behind it. I mean you can just build your house in peace and not have to worry about it getting destroyed when you log off. Or you can take part in Winner Takes All PvP sieges if you've a hankering for it. Hell, if you still want to have those crazy cool moments you can even take part in PvE sieges!

I don't really ever get to say this often (or ever), but I actually have an inside source on this one. The Devs working on it are in a rather unusual, but nice, position of not having to push a game out to meet some quarterly demand. The game isn't going to make or break Amazon. Amazon is more concerned about them making the best damn impression that they can with their first game. So I guess the Devs have been given a far bit of leeway to make sure they get it right. To that end they've spent time looking at other survival games and PvP MMOs to find what people like, don't like and what people would love to see in an effort to fix, add or improve upon those things. Basically the ol' Blizzard Method.

Apparently the game is still kicking. Figure I'll clean the OP up a little, so:

Website!
Endless trial (up to level 10)
New player guide

Arthil wanted to mention how you can refer a friend for 10 days, earning goodies in the process. More info here

http://tera.enmasse.com/ THE OFFICIAL SITE

*SERVER INFO*
Server: Tempest Reach
PVE Guild: We Are Nice Guys http://weareniceguys.guildlaunch.com
Raidcall: #4871615

What Is TERA?

TERA actually stands for The Exiled Realms of Arborea. An Action MMO from Bluehole Studios

This looks suspiciously KOREAN. Why should I give two flips about this?

It is. But don't fret. Remember what I said about Action MMO? A lot of people may not realize, but TERA is claimed to play like a combination of Monster Hunter and Phantasy Star Online. What this means is aside from numbers popping up letting you know how much you hit or got hit for, there's not much in the way of auto-targeting. You have a melee attack? You better be facing the right way. You have a direct damage spell? You better hope you can aim semi-well or you may find yourself shooting airballs and before you know it you have an empty mana bar with not much to show for it!

Okay, Okay. The gameplay seems neat but this still looks VERY Korean

Oh you meant GRIND. I wish I could say I could alleviate your troubles but the Localization crew over at En Masse have assured us that they're working hard to mask that aspect of the genre, adding quests and rewriting lore to suit more western palettes. Standard mmo tropes do apply here, however. Kill X of Y, Bring me X body parts, craft this junk I could walk across the street and get but I'm a lazy sod. you get the deal.

Hmmm....tell me more, salesman

What we know so far:

7 races with their own racial skills
8 classes that any of the 7 races can become
A political system in the works where top groups of players are voted into power and given dominion over a province. Receiving perks such as guild keeps, special mounts, vendors along with being able to set a tax over their region.

Tax? What the HELL man?! I don't wanna give my hard earned greed monies to some random dick!

Not to worry! A group of geese trying to bleed the player base dry? Vote them out! It's that simple!

So about these races/classes?

Races:

Dragonfolk, Burly mean and strong. Value freedom and strength above all other things. Dragon pimps representing The iron forged dome of Kaiator

Huge genderless learned golem folk. They live in libraries since their home town was snuffed out. There's no female to their race. Which makes the fact that they have one really built up arm like Left 4 Dead 2 Chargers suspicious and also makes me question that "genderless" thing. Maybe they just mean "ronery"

Blood Elf style done right mixed with Night Elf douchebaggery. The males are Iggy pop. And the females wear plate thongs. Their home city is The Darkdeep Underblack. In the middle of scenic New Jersey.

Legolas and company. Only with slightly less "I'm better than you". Their home city is Fantasia. And no they can't talk to you because they really must be getting back to their fantastic magical oasis.

Magical Flower Children made by the goddess Elinu. They're also all apparently bitchy, tsundere misanthropes. yes we know. No, we're not having that conversation.

Elin Bioweapons gone horribly right The best damn race in the game.

The frontiersmen and the ground pounders. All the males look like Lou Ferrigno. The chicks all look like.....I guess some really hot human chick, pick your poison. They live in a giant wheel. Your argument is invalid.

What Class Should I pick!?

Watch this first

Hunters only without the pets. I hope you like third-person shooters because that's basically what playing an Archer is.

http://tera.enmasse.com/game-guide/classes/archer

"HULK SMASH!" These guys are your heavy hitters, slow and steady before they land that one hit that leaves them crying uncle.

http://tera.enmasse.com/game-guide/classes/berserker

Your tank class. Stuns and aggro abilities. You also have to manually block things. If you like playing Balrog or Guile in SF4 you should feel right at home here.

http://tera.enmasse.com/game-guide/classes/lancer

Support Healer that relies droppable orbs and auras to support their group. You will learn to love their blue balls.

http://tera.enmasse.com/game-guide/classes/mystic

Mostly aoe heals with damage absorption shields. It's like if a Holy priest and a Disc priest stopped fucking around and had a baby.

http://tera.enmasse.com/game-guide/classes/priest

Dance of blades all day erryday, AOE melee specialist. Sort of a middle ground between the power of a berserker and the mobility of a warrior

http://tera.enmasse.com/game-guide/classes/slayer

Every mage ever. Massive firepower but made out of wet tissue and popsicle sticks. Avoid danger accordingly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5eDf-HY8U
http://tera.enmasse.com/game-guide/classes/sorcerer

A dual wielding cyclone. Their playstyle changes every 10 levels and are probably the most JOHN FUCKING MADDEN class in the game. They're marked the hardest for a reason

http://tera.enmasse.com/game-guide/classes/warrior

RESOURCES

.ini tweaks

FieldofView Bind:
Navigate to "TERA\Client\S1Game\Config"
open up the file "S1Input.ini"
underneath the line "bEnableMouseSmoothing=true"
Bindings=(Name="x",Command="fov 90")
(make sure there is no ; at the start of the line like there are with the lines underneath it)

Disable Mouse Smoothing:
Navigate to "TERA\Client\S1Game\Config"
open up the file "S1Input.ini"
Change "bEnableMouseSmoothing=true" to false

Disable In-Game Fake AA/Blur (FXAA):
Launch Tera. Go to Settings: Video: "Lighting Enhancement"
Change 2 to 1 Add Antialiasing with SMAA Injector:
Do above FXAA fix!
DISABLE NVIDIA/ATI AA! (it doesn't work anyways)
Download: http://mrhaandi.blogspot.de/p/injectsmaa.html
Extract contents of dx9 folder into:
\TERA\Client\Binaries\
Toggle with Pause/Break to see Jaggies Appear/Vanish like Magic! (default is ON)

S1Engine.ini Tweaks:
Change "DepthOfField=True" to False (Less Blur in distance and on trees)
Change "bSmoothFrameRate=True" to False (Disables stupid FPS cap)
Change "MaxAnisotropy=" to 16 (Better texture filtering)
Under [SystemSettings] add "bAllowLightShafts=True"
GAME OVERWRITES S1Engine.ini each patch so CHECK THESE Nvidia Character Texture Tweak:

Download/Open Nvidia Inspector
Click on Wrench (duh!)
Open Tera Profile
Scroll down to Dynamic Tiling
Set Flag to: PS_DYNAMIC_TILING_ON
Save Profile

The breakdown of what this does is:

No laggy mouse.
Wider view.
Sharper visuals.
No jaggies.
Smoother character textures.
No blurry things.
Uncapped FPS.

Crystal Builds
http://atra-astrum.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=13483#p13483

Glyph Calculator
http://glyphcalc.atra-astrum.eu/

Class Guides
(Thanks to Grouch for compiling these)

Lancer Eziel's Lancer guide
Warrior Nalfen's Warrior Guide

Advanced Warrior Tips

Slayer Xeismik's Slayer Guide Steparu's Mini Slayer Guide
Archer Sedina's Archer Guide
Sorcerer Delak's Sorcerer Guide
Mystic Karyudo's Mystic Guide
Priest Luciferia's Priest Guide

Enchanting

Info courtesy Maywind

Here's something: http://tera-europe.com/guides/enchantment-guide.html

It doesn't cover masterworking, however. Normal enigmatic gears can only be enchanted up to +9. However, for any enigmatic gear piece that doesn't say "Cannot be made into masterwork" on the bottom of its stats pop-up, you can masterwork it (enchant up to +12). You'll have to use a Master Enigmatic Scroll to seal the item and an Intricate Identification Scroll to unseal it to reveal the stats. The chance to masterwork an item is pretty low (3%), so you'll have to keep on sealing and identifying using Master Enigmatic Scroll and Intricate Identification Scroll until you proc the masterwork. You'll know you successfully masterworked when the item name changes from "Sword of Doom" to "Masterwork Sword of Doom". Once the item is masterworked, you can only use Master Enigmatic Scroll and Intricate Identification Scroll to reroll the stats. To enchant a masterwork +10 to +12, you'll need to use the pink Master Alkahest.

Since the enchanting patch, people generally use the following colored fodders for the specific enchantment levels:

+1 to +3: white fodder
+4 to +6: green fodder
+7 to +9: blue fodder
+10 to +12: gold fodder

However, you have to remember despite the enchanting improvements, RNG is still RNG. It's entirely possible to be super unlucky and fail a couple times in a row even if you use gold fodder and at the same time, I know a guildie who +12ed his weapon using a green fodder.

Closing this post with Amani getting their groove on

(OP Shamelessly stolen from @Beezel and the last thread)

World of Warcraft's new Expansion is now Live!

Featuring 4 different Covenants that you align yourself with to level up and gain unique powers, transmogs, mounts, and, unique quests. (Think class halls, but not just for your class).

Shadowlands features a hub city a lot like Dalaran named Oribos, The Undying City.

en-world-of-warcraft-season-pass-castle-nathria-heroic.png

The first raid of the expansion has been released. Castle Nathria is a dungeon taking place in Revendreth and features the continuing story line from the zone.

So yeah, I will use the first posts for informational topics if everyone gives me a minute to set it up. PM me if you have resources that are still useful. All the stuff in the previous first post looks outdated.

FFXIV: Shadowbringers is available on Windows, MacOS, PS4. Windows version can be purchased online, in-store or via Steam
All clients play on the same servers. The PS3 client has been discontinued. You will be unable to purchase a license for any content for the PS3 client.

Free trial <Link>
Benchmark tool and character designer <Link>

Trial accounts have the following limitations:

Maximum of 300,000 gil on a character
Limited to level 60 or below (This limitation allows you to play all the way through to the end of Heavensward)
Unable to use /shout, /yell, and /tell chat modes
Unable to access the marketboard, create/use retainers, send/receive in-game mail, and trade with other players
Unable to join/create Free Companies (guilds), unable to create but can join if invited parties and linkshells
Unable to progress past floor 10 of the Palace of the Dead
No time limitation. Characters can be transferred to a full paid account with no time limitations if created after patch 3.56
Characters created on a trial account before patch 3.56 have a 90 day time limit to be transferred to a full paid account

PA Community Information

Server:
Sargatanas (Legacy) NA - Aether Datacenter
Server Status: http://www.arrstatus.com/

Reminder: All clients play on the same servers. There will be PS4 players alongside those on Windows/MacOS
There's three datacenter clusters. One based in Japan, one in North America (located in San Jose, California) and a new EU data center
There are no restrictions on which server cluster you can play on when selecting a server but be mindful of the location for the purposes of latency

Datacenter groups are used in Duty Finder and Raid Finder group matchmaking.

Free Company
Official PA Forum FC: Ghost in the Linkshell <GHOST>

You can be invited into the FC by finding anyone with the <GHOST> tag, select the "View Company Profile" option and submit an application mentioning the PA forums

note that it's not like a PA exclusive community there's a bunch of people from just the server in general.

WoW classic launched with thousands of players reliving the Classic WoW content. Recently there was the release of Naxxramas after the launch of Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj.

world-of-warcraft-classic-burning-crusade-release-date-leak.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=960&h=500&dpr=1.5

world-of-warcraft-classic-burning-crusade-release-date-leak.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=960&h=500&dpr=1.5

Lately there have been rumors of a beta launching for the Burning Crusade expansion. Blizzard have not spoken about BC expansion yet, but it is the next step in the WoW Classic content. The question is not if, but when.

PA Guild info:
Alliance PVE - Pagle (Reforged Daggers)
Alliance PVP - Fairbanks (Schizzo of Exuberance)
Horde PVP - Fairbanks (Booty Bay Boys)
Alliance PVP - Fairbanks (Startlingly Retro)

I know, I was just as surprised as you are. Shadowbane, the notHit MMO from 2003, is back and released on Steam last week.

Hailing from the time when MMO's were the brave new frontier of gaming, Shadowbane brings intriguing mechanics to the genre, like
Character Customization: One of the two unique pillars of Shadowbane, this is the one that gripped me when the game came out. Unlike launch WoW, or SWTOR, or other MMO's, your character was more than your class, your race went far beyond your appearance, and your prestige class meant more than a talent tree. Character building in Shadowbane begins with a simple choice, your race. Beyond choosing your looks though, this determined your starting stats, your stat caps, and your available basic class. Each race also came with certain racial traits, both positive and negative. Each character gets 30 freebie points at creation, to spend on stat increases, or runestones that could give you stat bonuses, or even entire skills you wouldn't have access to, like the ability to dual wield (RIP Rekthar, the dual-wielding axe throwing Half-Giant Barbarian). However, every race cost a number of your freebie points (A Centaur, for example, takes 10 of your 30 points), except for humans, who not only did not cost points but also gave you 1 extra point per level up.

So your race is chosen, which then determines what basic class you can select: Fighter, Healer, Rogue, Mage. Your starting class will determine your beginning skills. These skills range from armor types and weapon types to schools of magic, like Liturgy or Benediction. You even have skills like Dodge, Parry, Bargaining, Running, Athletics, and Toughness. In total, there are 57 Skills in the game. But there's more! At level 10, you then choose your prestige class. This is where your choice of race and base class combine to determine what you can promote to. But guess what? Many classes can be chosen from multiple base classes. You could be a Mage Bard, or a Rogue Bard. You could be a Mage Warlock or a Fighter Warlock (Yeah you heard that, a melee base class with a caster promotion). There are 22 prestige classes.

Beyond that, you have three discipline slots that you can fill as you play the game. What you can equip is determined by your race and class. The disciplines are another layer of specialization (or hybridization, depending on your goals). These are akin to WoW professions or SWTOR crew skills, except they are not crafting skills, but could be more aptly described as mini-classes. Taking the Saboteur disc, for example, gives you abilities like stealth (Which is helpful if you aren't a rogue) and untrackability, a personal teleport, and the ability to shut down siege equipment during a bane. Or, you could take the Wererat disc, which, well, you can guess. These disc can also grant skills you may not be able to access otherwise. There are 48 of these disciplines.

So, you have 12 races, with 22 classes, 55 skills, combining to create your character. As you can see from these numbers alone, this is a staggering amount of choice in how you want to craft your character. Indeed, you can roll two characters, with the same race, base class, prestige class, and disciplines. But if you choose to train different skills on those characters, they can play entirely differently from one another. This was one of the biggest things that drew me to the game back in the day. When it comes to conflict between players, the classes of Shadowbane are definitely built on the idea of rock paper scissors. A Thief can demolish Warriors that depend on their armor alone. Scouts are some of the fastest characters, have the best tracking, can beat out anybody's stealth (Indeed, the only way to get a drop on a good scout is to be a scout yourself). With 22 classes, no matter what someone chooses, there are people they can take on, and others they should avoid.

The other pillar was the focus of the game: PvP. Or more specifically: PvP beyond random free for alls and ganking. Before warzones, Shadowbane said "What if we let players build entire cities for their guilds? And then let them wage war with each other?" Shadowbane was a game of politics, overshadowed only by EVE in scope. Your guild could claim rule over an entire zone, collecting taxes from other cities in the zone, wage wars against bitter rivals, or simply open your gates to everyone and rake in gold as players come and go, buying what they need from your crafters.
The political aspect of Shadowbane is beyond intriguing. Guilds could be attack on sight, simply because one person had killed another during leveling, and the victim held a grudge. Wealer guilds could pay tribute, hoping to convince larger guilds to ignore them and throw a bane on someone else (Banes were Shadowbane's method of setting the terms for large scale conflict. An attacker would put a bane on a defender's city, meaning it could be attacked and destroyed, but the defending city go to choose the time when the bane would be active, ensuring they couldn't be targetted at a time that they were mostly offline).
Shadowbane's main focus, from day one, was player conflict. The game tracks who you kill, who killed you, has a pvp channel that announces deaths as they happen. Hell, there's an entire class whose big hook is stealing from other people's inventories. Your inventory can be looted from your body (Thankfully, you don't need to actually carry anything on you, so it would be anything you have looted, and if you loot something you really want to keep, you can use a recall scroll to immediately get back to town and throw your treasure in your bank).

Now, having heaped praise on the game, Shadowbane has some actual, real issues that are totally justifiable in not bothering with the game, such as

Click to move
Edge-scrolling camera control only, by default (I've rebound this to WASD)
Just, the worst graphics. Seriously, it looked bad on release and it hasn't gotten better
An arcane engine built specifically for this game. It has atrocious draw distance, everything is covered in a fog to cover that, and hills and mountains are sudden 90 degree terrain changes that your character just glides across no problem
Inventory loot on death. Yeah, this goes on the negative too, cause a lot of people just don't like that. Though there's a good chance if looting on death is a dealbreaker for you, most of this game will be
The UI. My god, the UI. It looks bad, the default layout is pants-on-head, and you need to alter it to get the information you actually want on the screen. Worse, it doesn't scale to modern resolutions. So it can be difficult to read your status bar numbers because the text is tiny, thanks to it remaining the same size at 2880X1620 that is was at 800X600
Obfuscation of information. What does STR do? Well, if you check your character sheet in game, you aren't going to be told. Luckily, the stats are basic and easy to figure out (STR, DEX, CON, INT, SPR). The bigger issue with lack of information is that you won't know what race or classes give access to what skills. Luckily, as the game is 20 years old, and has had emulators running for years, there's a wiki for that. A wiki that just so happens to be using the same map and build as the Steam version.

Shadowbane is an almost 20 year old game filled with arcane game design choices, dated graphics and gameplay, and a core of "Make what you will".
For people with old fuzzy fond memories of Shadowbane, it is a nostalgia trip I am still enjoying. For 9 dollars, it honestly is a joyous return to youthful times.

Gloria Victis [Beta]
Setting: Medieval Realistic || Focus: PvP || Budget: ~$5M* || Engine: Unity 5

Skill-based combat mechanics à la Mount and Blade
Class-less system with diversified equipment
Open world housing, territory control and sieges
Complex crafting system: leatherworking, armoursmithing, weapon forging

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen [Pre-Alpha]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvE || Budget: $? || Engine: Unity 5

Spiritual successor to EverQuest
Deeply social: dungeons require teamwork and group strategy
Thrilling climbing system
Perception system: the world reveals its secrets through the environment

Dual Universe [Beta]
Setting: Science-Fiction || Focus: PvP || Budget: ~$25M* || Engine: Unigine 2

Single shard persistent universe shared by all the players
Voxel-based universe: player-made cities, stations and warships
Space warfare: pirate ships, coordinated attacks, skirmishes
Player-controlled global economy: mine, craft, build, optimize, barter and trade

Ashes of Creation [Alpha]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvP/PvE || Budget: ~$30M* || Engine: Unreal 4

Nodes system: player participation influences the type of content in the surrounding areas
Open world housing: players have the ability to survey and develop land anywhere in the world
Castle sieges with hundreds of players with many moving parts
Harsh, unforgiving and stunning environment

Crowfall [Beta]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvP || Budget: $38M || Engine: Unity 5

Spiritual successor to Shadowbane
Player-created worlds with parcels of terrain and pre-fab building pieces
GvG/RvR time-limited campaigns that guilds or factions can win
Deep crafting system inspired by Star Wars: Galaxies

Camelot Unchained [Beta]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: RvR || Budget: ~$20M* || Engine: Unchained

Spiritual successor to Dark Age of Camelot
Large-scale RvR battles and sieges with more than a thousand players
Open world with islands that players can move to strategically reshape the world
Block-by-block construction with server-side stability and destruction

Saga of Lucimia [Alpha]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvE || Budget: $? || Engine: Unity 5

Sandbox environment: no quests and no minimap
Tabletop gaming: all about team-based gameplay and friendship
Progression system based on skill selection rather than generic classes
Inspiring lore, myths and legends

Star Citizen [Alpha]
Setting: Science-Fiction || Focus: PvE/PvP || Budget: $348M || Engine: Lumberyard

Spiritual successor to Freelancer
Procedurally generated and handcrafted stunning worlds
Open world PvP with high speed dog fights with multi-crew ships or intense FPS warfare
Exploration: hidden outpost, abandoned ships and beautiful sunsets

The Repopulation [Alpha]
Setting: Science-Fiction || Focus: PvE/PvP || Budget: +$2M || Engine: Hero Engine

Spiritual successor to Star Wars: Galaxies
Be a hero, villain, thief, diplomat, home builder, tamer, crafter or entertainer
Housing options: instanced housing, persistent world housing and player city housing
Mission system: complex multi-stage missions tailored specifically for a character

Project Gorgon [Beta]
Setting: Medieval Fantasy || Focus: PvE || Budget: +$1M || Engine: Unity 5

Exploration: many hidden secrets awaiting discovery
Ambitious skill-based leveling system allowing the player to combine skills
Old-school MMO with innovative ideas, such as morphing into animals
16 combat skills, 71 trade skills, 11 beasts skills

*Personal estimate, probably inaccurate

Crosspost. Feel free to propose improvements to this post!

Sorry I can't put Vette there. She is great, but she's marred by the fanboyish and fetishistic way her romance is handled that made me feel 100% gross.

Kira doesn't have that problem, and she can also be romanced by ladies in the later chapters! Kira forever!

I don't have much SWTOR-related guides to put in this top post because everything has changed so much since my last op, sorry. But Vulk makes a lot of good guides if you need help:

https://vulkk.com/category/swtor/

IT'S BACK
Female Mage 2nd Awakening Trailer

Male Slayer 2nd Awakening Trailer

Female Slayer trailer

Power Station trailer

Time Gate trailer

Dungeon Fighter Online Global trailer

Avenger 2nd Awakening Trailer

Monk 2nd Awakening Trailer

Random PVP Video!

Uh...what's all this then?
Dungeon Fighter Online! Dungeon Fighter Online, or DFO, is the English language release of Neople's Dungeon & Fighter, also known as Arad Senki in Japan. It's a free to play MMO, with its claim to fame being the unique gameplay. DFO's gameplay is described as an homage to old school 2D beat 'em ups. Characters have access to basic attacks, and as they advance they begin to unlock skills, which can be used via hotkey or special command inputs. Characters can also unlock cancels, letting them string together their basic attacks and skills into devastating combos.

Sounds interesting! Where do I sign up?
You can sign up and download the client here.
If you played in the alpha and want to retrieve your characters, remember to sign up using the Facebook account you linked earlier.

Wait, it’s back?
That’s right! The English language version of DFO was originally published by Nexon, but shut down in June, 2013. But Neople, the original developers and publisher in Korea, want to bring it back to the global audience! They launched Dungeon Fighter Online Global as an open beta on March 24th, 2015. With the June 9th patch, DFOG is entering official release.

I'm a DFO veteran, what new content is going to be in DFO global?
The current content in DFO Global as it stands.
Great Metastasis (new dungeons for levels 1-54)
Level cap at 85 - Time Gate is the level 70-80 area, with 9 dungeons, and Power Station is the 80-85 area with 5 new dungeons.
These classes: Male Slayers, Female and Male Gunners, Female and Male Fighters, Female and Male Mages, Priests, Thieves (Necromancer & Rogue), Knight, and the two everted classes, Dark Knights and Creators.
Practice Arena and free skill resets.
Partial release of 2nd Awakenings - typically come with a class rebalance/quality of life patch in addition to the new 75-85 skills - 2nd Awakenings are in the process of being rolled out. Not all 2nd Awakenings are in KDnF yet so some classes might be waiting a long time

Notable content that is in kDnF but not in DFO Global's at the moment - Female Slayers, Knights, Kunoichi and Shadow Dancers (Thief subclasses), 2nd Awakenings

Character Progression
A Guide Brought to You by @RonaldoTheGypsy

1-15
During this time, your character is a base class and has access to a general mixture of skills that allow you to understand how it plays in comparison to others. During this time, you’ll familiarize yourself with your character’s basic skillset. Dash attacks, combo strings and various basic maneuvers are taught in this period. Typically, one will be able to learn about the four major weapon-types for their class in this time and whether said weapon is physical or magical and how the speed and reach of these weapons compare.

Players should eagerly spend skill points (SP) to experiment with and understand the fundamentals of a class and discover what class they’d like to advance toward when they reach the appropriate level (if they don’t already know) and at 15 (previously 20) they will be given a string of relatively simple quests to advance to a superior, specialized class, called a subclass.

Classes typically have four subclasses to choose from, but the Male Mage and Thief only have two subclasses. Subclasses share the same fundamental skillset but can have radically different playstyles. The Slayer, easily one of the most popular classes, has four choices and all of them vary wildly.

The First Sub-Class Selection
I’ll leave tier lists to … people who make tier lists. Something that players SHOULD understand when deciding which sub-class to choose is whether the sub-class uses PHYSICAL or MAGICAL damage and whether it is a primarily FIXED, PERCENTAGE or MIXED damage ratios character. First, though, I will explain the variances in the damage ratios.

Fixed Damage
Plain and simple, fixed damage is based on the level of your character, the level of your skill and the amount of STR (if physical) or INT (if magical) your character has, to a degree of about 250 points of STR/INT meaning another 100% bonus damage with fixed damage. Fixed damage characters are prized for their ease of entry, relying less on gear optimization than percentage characters.

Percentage
Skills of percentage damage characters will display as … well, a percentage. Whether it’s 50% weapon damage per hit or 2000% weapon damage per hit, percentage relies heavily on superb itemization and typically rewards individuals who can achieve particularly good enchantments on gear.

Mixed
Most characters aren’t going to have EXCLUSIVELY fixed or percentage damage. Further, even among skills, some will use a combination of both values to build damage. A skill with mixed damage will say something like
(fixed value) + (percentage value)
and strike a middle-ground between the two, benefitting from gear but not being entirely dependent on it.

16-50
After taking the plunge and choosing a subclass, you will be refunded all of the SP you used and generally given a few new skills as well to start your new adventure as whatever sub-class you selected.

From here, players should start to focus and get an idea of what abilities they want to pick out of their subclass to master as they move toward awakening. The best way to accomplish this is experimenting (or reading internet guides) via taking at least one point in abilities and toying with them in dungeons. You might find that, in spite of what others say, you prefer a different approach to a character than you thought. At 50, when you awaken, you’ll receive another refund of SP, so don’t feel overly awful if you invest in powers that you don’t find particularly useful at this point. Focus on learning combinations and the strengths/weaknesses of your class.

Awakening
This process takes place at a level where particular ‘Ancient’ dungeons become available. Typically, the process to awaken involves at least one run into one of these dungeons, which will make cooperation with other people necessary. Typically you’re asked to turn in several materials and then rubber stamped as a new, fancier class with access to an awakening active and passive skill.

Awakening skills are VERY expensive to level and whether one takes or ignores their awakening skill depends mostly on what class they choose. These active skills have a ten minute cooldown and require a chunk of resources and mana to use, typically being used in tandem against difficult bosses. These abilities vary in power from pretty much useless and not worth your points to absolute bulldozers that will make many challenges trivial. Be wary of awakening skill usage in team play, as other characters can (and will) move enemies out of your target and if you whiff, you whiff. Cooldown. Resources spent. Too bad.

51-70(85?)
Now it’s time to lock your build in and flex your character to their limits. The dungeons you do at this point will likely be incredibly difficult to solo if you’re doing them for experience. You will be constantly unlocking new forms of end-game content in the form of Otherverse (OV) and quests that require absurd amounts of materials for items of high quality. It’s likely that you won’t do all of these quests at this point, don’t feel bad about saving content for later. It will take increasingly large amounts of experience to level as you near the peak, but the game tends to provide items to keep the process from being cruel. As long as you have an understanding of how your character works and can work in parties, most dungeons won’t be too difficult if you don’t push yourself on difficulties that you can’t handle. Most of the finesse of DFO comes from having good reactions and knowing how to avoid the attacks of bosses. Most characters, aside from the very lowest of low tier can handle their own weight in most content up until the very end.

Classes
This guy’s playlist has all of the subclass showcases, if you’re interested.

Slayer

Swordsmen who carry the demon Kazan in their left arm.

Blade Master

Slayers who ignore Kazan and focus on their swordsmanship. The only Slayer subclass that can use Lightsabres, Blade Masters are skilled at used all 5 weapon-types available to Slayers, with their moves gaining special properties depending on which weapon-type is equipped. Can rapidly switch between weapons for cool weapon switch combos. Percentage, Physical.

Soul Bender

Slayers who learn how to master Kazan and other demons. Can summon a variety of demons to aid them in battle. Percentage, Magical.

Berserker

Slayers who succumb to Kazan's influence, and become warriors driven by bloodlust and rage. Spends HP on some of their skills, and can recovery HP through killing. Has lots of ways to inflict bleed on enemies, and gets more powerful against bleeding foes. Mostly Fixed, Physical.

Asura

Slayers who make a bargain with Kazan, and trade their eyes for immense power. Can attack from a far with magical 'waves'. Naturally immune to blinds, and very durable. Mostly Fixed, Magical

Fighter (F)

Martial artists seeking to perfect their craft.

Nen Master

Fighters who have learned how to harness their inner “Nen” energy. They possess powerful buffs and utility skills, as well as a strong, light-elemental offense. Percentage, Magical.

Striker

Fighters who master physical strikes. The only F.Fighter subclass that can use Boxing Gloves. Delivers devastatingly powerful hits. Percentage, Physical.

Brawler

Fighters who will do anything to win a fight. Fights dirty, using poison, bricks, nets and mines. Hybrid.

Grappler

Fighters who focus on throws and grabs. Grapplers have fantastic control over their foes, and their grabs work on otherwise unthrowable enemies. Fixed, Physical.

Fighter (M)

Martial artists seeking to perfect their craft.

M.Nen Master

Fighters who have learned how to harness their inner “Nen” energy. Have a stronger offense but less utility compared to Female Nen Masters. Percentage, Magical.

M.Striker

Fighters who master physical strikes. The only M.Fighter subclass that can use Boxing Gloves. Delivers devastatingly powerful hits. His skillset is more 'foot-based' than the F.Striker's. Percentage, Physical.

M.Brawler

Fighters who will do anything to win a fight. Fights dirty, using poison, bricks, nets and mines. Focuses on throwing objects, so fights from a longer range than the F.Brawler. Hybrid.

M.Grappler

Fighters who focus on throws and grabs. Grapplers have fantastic control over their foes, and their grabs work on otherwise unthrowable enemies. Fixed, Physical.

Priest

Holy men who have devoted their lives to the eradication of evil.

Crusader

Priests armed with devotion and powerful holy magic. Has access to very strong healing and buff spells, as well as offensive magic with strong utility. Fixed, Magical.

Monk

Priests who like engage in good old fashioned pugilism. Eschews the giant weapons favored by other priest subclasses, instead fighting with his bare-knuckles. Attacks and moves much faster than his fellow Priests, and is able to dart and weave in and out of combat and deliver lightning fast boxing combinations that keep his opponent staggered. Percentage, Physical.

Exorcist

Priests armed with talismans and incantations, ready to exorcise demons the hard way. Has access to a multitude of skills, and can be built as a powerful physical or magical attacker. Percentage.

Avenger

Priests who were infused with demonic energy, but continue to fight evil and maintain their faith, even as they were outcast from their priestly order. They fight with shadowy magic and can temporarily turn themselves into a powerful demon. Magical, Percentage.

Gunner (M)

Long-ranged combatants from Empyrean.

Ranger

Gunners who fight up close, using a combination of kicks and well placed revolver shots. Percentage, Physical.

Launcher

Gunners who use a variety of heavy weapons, such as gatling guns, flame throwers and lasers. Fixed, Physical.

Mechanic

Gunners who call on a variety of hi-tech gizmos and friends to fight by their side. Percentage, Magical.

Spitfire

Gunners who utilize magic infused bullets and grenades. Hybrids.

Gunner (F)

Long-ranged combatants from Empyrean.

F.Ranger

Gunners who fight up close, using a combination of kicks and well placed revolver shots. Percentage, Physical.

F.Launcher

Gunners who use a variety of heavy weapons, such as gatling guns, flame throwers and lasers. Fixed, Physical.

F.Mechanic

Gunners who call on a variety of hi-tech gizmos and friends to fight by their side. Percentage, Magical.

F.Spitfire

Gunners who utilize magic infused bullets and grenades. Hybrids.

Mage (F)

Magic-users from Pandemonium. Generally ill-suited to close combat.

Elementalist

Mages who form a bond with nature, and can call upon the elements to strike down their foes. Can mix and match spells from the 4 elements, and create amazing combinations. Percentage, Magical.

Summoner

Mages who call upon spirits and beasts to aid them. Can summon a semi-autonomous posse, and give them buffs and direction. Fixed, Magical.

Witch

Mages who specialize in goofy magical contraptions. The only mage subclass that can use Broomsticks. Her attacks have chances to fail, or be a “sleeper success”. Can ride around in a giant drill pretending to be Dr. Robotnik. Fixed, Magical.

Battle Mage

Mages who like fight up close, augmenting their close combat skills with their magic. Successful attacks generate magical Chasers, which buff the Battle Mage and can be flung at enemies as an attack or consumed to perform a devastating Chaser Press. Larger combos generate bigger and better Chasers. Hybrid

Mage (M)

Magic-users from Pandemonium, with the power of Immortality.

Elemental Bomber

Mages who fight using elementally infused magical orbs. Percentage, Magical.

Glacial Master

Mages with mastery over water and ice. Percentage, Magical.

Thief

Swift and deadly Dark Elves.

Rogue

Highly mobile, combo oriented warriors. Generates “Contact Points” through usage of certain skills and cancels, and can spend them to empower some of her skills. The only class that can double jump, with lots of skills oriented towards aerial combat. Percentage, Physical.

Necromancer

Masters of the dead, who fight alongside their undead allies, Nicholas and Vallacre. Nicholas acts as a powerful summon who fights along side you, while Vallacre manifests by possessing the Necromancer and transforming her traditional attacks. Fixed, Magical

Knight

Young warriors, in search of "Carloso, the Creator".

Elven Knight

Elven Knights fight with sword and shield, and have access to strong defensive options as well as a unique rhythmic offense. Can ride a unicorn. Percentage, Physical.

Chaos

Chaoses are short ranged summoners, calling forth and directing demons. Fixed, Magical.

Female Slayer

Experimented upon young women, who carry the unstable energy of the Metastasis in their bodies

Sword Master

A master of many weapons. Can imbue their weapons with elemental power, and their moves take on different properties depending on which weapon they wield. Can chain together moves to form a rapid and fluid offense. Physical, Percentage.

Demon Slayer

Wielder of the Sword Demon Daimus, a curved sword whip made from the spirits of demons. Her sword whip lets her attack from long range, and frequently inflict bleeds.

Vagabond

Female Slayers who suppress their Metastasis energy and focus on their ability to fight. Can dual wield, and is the only Female Slayer subclass capable of using Lightsabres. Does telekinetic sword stuff too.

Dark Templar

Worshippers of Usir, the god of death. They fight with dark magic and consume the souls of their fallen foes, using it to power their abilities.

Everted classes?
Everted classes are unique classes. They are visually similar to M.Slayers and F.Mages, but have unique features and no subclasses. They are both time-travelers - they came through the Time-Gate to prevent a dark future.

Dark Knight

Dark Knights have a large list of active skills, drawing on skills from all of the M.Slayer's subclasses. The Dark Knight can string these skills together into 6-piece 'auto' combos.

Creator

Creators move using WASD and attack using the mouse.

Ok. Right away, I'm a sucker for sim type games. I love building things. I love games where you build up a town or a community. The city building in SWG was way ahead of its time, and that was my favorite aspect of that game. Halfhill farm in Mists of Pandaria is pretty much my favorite game feature they ever added to WoW. Games like Stardew Valley, Graveyard Keeper, and Animal Crossing are my jam.

So when I heard that there's a new game coming out that is described as a "community simulation massively multiplayer online game" they instantly had my attention.

Behold: Palia. A brand new MMO that was just announced.

Here's the official announcement trailer:

IGN describes the game on their site as follows:
(source: https://www.ign.com/articles/palia-announcement )

Singularity 6 announced today that is working on Palia, a new MMO that is equal parts Stardew Valley and World of Warcraft. Described as a "Massively Multiplayer Community Sim," it will bring players together to revive a quaint village while working to solve an evolving mystery.

Palia is being developed by a collective of former developers from Blizzard, Epic, Riot, Zynga, and Sony, and it shows in the overall aesthetic

And here's a few screenshots--
Images pulled from GameInformer's article:
(source: https://www.gameinformer.com/2021/06/03/singularity-6s-palia-is-a-relaxing-mmo )

If this all sounds exciting to you, here's the official website. Right now they are taking signups for "pre-alpha registration" whatever that means.
https://palia.com/

Western reveal trailer:

Class gameplay:

This OP is a work in progress, pardon the dust.

What is Lost Ark?
An isometric, ARPG MMO created by South Korean developer Smilegate, being published in the west by Amazon Game Studios.

It is currently the biggest MMO in Korea, where it's been out since late 2018. Released in Russia the year after, and Japan the next.

And what about here?
A western release was finally announced recently, Fall 2021. A six-day technical alpha just ended on 06/16. As of mid-June, no exact dates for the fall release or any upcoming beta phases have been announced. It'll be hitting all of North America and much of Europe, precise list here:

How much?
Free on release, with three pre-order "Founder's Pack" options you can buy on Steam, priced at $25, $50 and $100. On release there will be a cash shop with the standard MMO cash shop fare - cosmetics and conveniences primarily. More on this later.

So what's the draw?
First things first, this game is pretty. It packs some of the best skill animations you've probably ever seen, and the environments and creatures are nearly as good. Visually, this thing is on point. More importantly though, it plays as good as it looks. Some of the slickest and most satisfying ARPG combat I've encountered yet. Fluid and substantial, has a bit of a Monster Hunter meets Diablo meets Devil May Cry type of feel to it.

Classes?
Lots of 'em. 5 main classes, and you proceed to your final subclass very early. 14 subclasses upon western release, with 4-5 more that have since been released in other regions. Each class has its own unique 'Identity' mechanic.

We've got...(actual details to come)

Berserker
Paladin
Gunlancer
Wardancer
Scrapper
Soulfist
Gunslinger
Artillerist
Deadeye
Sharpshooter
Bard
Summoner
Shadowhunter
Deathblade

Features and systems?
This game has most of the standard MMO fare covered. Pets, mounts, guilds, professions, crafting, dungeons, raids, a bit of PvP. In lieu of talents, there is a skill customization system, with each skill having three tiers of options that drastically change the power and nature of the skill.

Other features - private player housing, a considerable amount of collection and exploration systems with permanent bonuses, a system for improving your relationships with certain NPCs to unlock quests and rewards, a card collection game with equippable cards for buffs and set bonuses, ocean adventures, it really does go on. None of these features are tacked on or half-assed though, if something is a feature it tends to have a lot going on with it. (Not certain if the player housing will be in the western release at launch.)

Anything else to add?
Yeah, a fuckload. But I'm going to get this OP out there for now and add to it over time!

Ashes of Creation is a pretty ambitious MMO that has a lot to offer. Your actions will have consequences from developing a location into a new village to becoming corrupted through PvP. This is an MMO that has been in development since 2015.

Think of it live Civilization but an MMO.

There will be 100+ locations called Nodes and players that gather materials, complete quests, and kill mobs and gain exp will also help to level the node up. As the node levels it opens up more stuff in that area. Nodes will have different stages of advancement being:

Wilderness
Crossroads
Camp
Village
Town
City
Metropolis

It will take longer and longer to move the node up the higher it gets and by developing the node it will lock out other nodes in the area from developing so in the end there will only be a hand full of fully developed nodes that players will be able to go to. The Nodes will also take on aesthetic aspects of the race that provided the most in leveling that node.

Nodes will also have four different types and they are predetermined so players will be able to target a specific node and work together to advance it hopefully before another group might advance the nearby node they are advancing. The four node types are:

Divine Nodes
Economic Nodes
Military Nodes
Scientifc Nodes

Each node will offer benefits at different stages of advancement from Divine nodes spawning mega catacomb dungeons beneath the Metropolis to Economic nodes generating a player wide auction house. Military nodes will enable Bounty Hunters which will be a title players can take to hunt down corrupted players and Scientific nodes will offer teleportation between the metropolis and vassal nodes for citizens.

Speaking of citizens, players will be able to purchase an apartment/house in the developed nodes and become a citizen to take part if further advancing the node, quest and benefits only given to citizens of that node, and be able to participate in mayoral elections.

Being the mayor comes with a lot of benefits. It will be one of EXTREMELY few ways to obtain a flying mount. The mayor will also be responsible for setting the taxes of the node and setting the upgrades to the town like generic things such as a blacksmith shop or alchemy shop and even node type specific upgrades. The mayor will be decided based on the kind of node, some will holds votes, others will be chosen based on how divine they are, or military node mayors will be decided by combat.

PvP is also a huge part of the system. Citizens of a node will be able to join a trade caravan to protect it from other players trying to loot it or attack another developed node to completely destroy that node and free up the area for new node development.

The game as it currently is will be open world PvP at all times with no opt in/opt out for players. Players will have 3 PvP designations:

Non-combatant
PvP enabled
Corrupted

Being a non-combatant does not make you safe. Players can still gank you at will but a PvP enabled player that does so becomes corrupted. If a PvP enabled player kills a PvP enabled player or a corrupt player there will be no change to their PvP flag. If a non-combatant kills a corrupt player there will be no change but if they kill a PvP enabled player they will be flagged for PvP.

The way the developers plan to stop ganking is through this corruption system. As corrupt players gain more corruption through killing non-combatants and other ways they become less and less effective in PvP. The bigger the level difference between a corrupt player and their non-combatant victim the more corruption they generate. Their proficiency with weapons and armor is reduce, their stats are reduced, and the chance to drop equipped gear increases as they become corrupt. These stat effects are only active in PvP so they can still do PvE but at some point they become useless in PvP. As mentioned Military nodes will have Bounty Hunters who hunt the corrupted players and corrupt player stat impacts will not be active against Bounty Hunters so they will be full powered.

The next big thing is the penalties on dying. When a players die they a percentage of their gathered materials, they get experience debt so that needs to be cleared before being able to get exp to progress to the next level, gear will be damaged which will need crafting materials to repair, and there will be a temporary stat reduction. The items dropped will be able to be picked up by anyone if they find it before you get back to it so it is possible to lose a good chunk of times worth of gathering because of one death.

This leads into the major downside in my personal opinion when PvP gets involved. The same penalties for dying will happen in PvP so gankers will be able to take the items you drop and you will still get that exp debt, stat reduction, and damaged gear.

The next big thing to cover is the class system. There will be 8 archtypes that players will be able to choose from when making their character.

Fighter
Tank
Rogue
Ranger
Mage
Summoner
Cleric
Bard

Next come the classes. At a certain level players will choose a secondary archtype to create their class. So a Tank primary could take Mage and become a Spellshield and modify their skills. Instead of charging to a target they could teleport immediately to them. A Cleric could take Summoner and become a Necromancer. Or a Rogue could take Rogue again and become an Assassin.

The class system should allow for a lot of fun builds and allow for players to play in their preferred way and still be effective in all aspects of the game.

Part of the intention in PvP is fights will essentially be a Rock Paper Scissors situation.

Right now the game is in early alpha 1 so there is a ton of time for things to change and develop and improve. There is currently a non-NDA month long alpha 1 test going on until August 13th and the price to get into the alpha 1 is real steep. The $500 package is what is needed to get into the alpha 1 now. It is very much an alpha game, it has things in place to play and it runs but right now everything is being tested so unless you REALLY want to support the game and test it the $500 price tag is absolutely not worth it. There are other bundles but none of them come with alpha 1 access.

There is also a setup to buy in-game cosmetics for bags, mounts, armor, boats (there will be naval combat), and housing. You have to have one of the packages to be able to purchase them and as of right now they are limited time availability so they have a set for 1 month and then it is gone forever after it ends which honestly is pretty lame. There also already being a cosmetic shop is also a pretty worrying sign but they do at least promise there is no P2W.

There is a lot more to the game and a ton of stuff to discuss and go over but it will be interesting to see how this develops. The game is apparently being created by a bunch of veteran MMO players/developers so who knows how this will go. There are also apparently people who were working on Everquest Next and it really shows since there are a lot of things in this game that are extremely reminiscent of Everquest Next plans.

This is a dragon a group of us killed last week during the alpha 1 test month.

Massively Online Multiplayer games are different. They are generally a social experience, meant to be played over long stretches of time rather than simply beaten and shelved. There was a bit of an explosion some years ago after World of Warcraft made the bankest of banks ever, and thus companies threw a lot games out there in the hopes of getting their own WoW money. So maybe you're new to this whole thing, and maybe a friend wants you to play or maybe your curiosity has gotten the better of you. Or perhaps you're a grizzled vet that, against your better instincts, has an MMO itch to scratch. Either way, this thread will serve as an aid for deciding which MMO to play. It seems to make more sense than having a player jump between 10+ threads asking questions.

This thread allows is for cross-pollination you may not get elsewhere. Simple comparisons that may be difficult to answer in other threads, or maybe you feel it'll derail the current conversation elsewhere. A good example of a post is "I like WoW's raid content, but feel it's lacking in casual stuff. How does SWOTR compare?" whereas a bad example is "Explain FFXIV's endgame to me." which would be better in, you know, the FFXIV thread. This also is not a chat thread where people get into pissing contests defending their pet MMO while attacking others. A good guideline is to ask yourself "Is this line of discussion beneficial to someone looking for a new MMO or am I just rushing to the defense of my game?" The thread doesn't serve much of a point if people are afraid to post because people are arguing about which grind for bear asses is less tedious.

In order to help people, this OP will serve as a collection of MMOs along with a list of features, cost, and prospects. It's not meant to be comprehensive descriptions but just a jumping board for people to find MMOs they want to research further. If you don't see an MMO on this list, then just post your own and I'll add it to the OP.

Also: discussion regarding private servers are against the rules. Do not suggest an MMO that was officially shut down.

Last Update: September 2020

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Released: 2004
Cost: $50 for newest expansion; subscription is only thing required for older content
Payment Model: Subscription ($15/mo; can buy sub time with in-game currency) + Cash Shop; Sub Time
Frequent Compliments: Massive playerbase, so you can normally find a group of likeminded people. One of the best leveling experiences out there, something that changed MMOs forever. Quick, fun, and catered to solo players, you will probably get your money's worth by leveling alone. Technically solid, with crisp responsive gameplay and loads of mod support for tailor-made UIs. Raids are considered high-quality content, and the game has finally added endgame content for small groups with scaling Mythic+ dungeons.
Frequent Complaints: Old, so the game may not look as good even with character model updates. The lore has been hot garbage as of late. Endgame can be seen as uninspired grinding. Game has a history of very slow content updates, particularly between expansions where as much as a year can pass with no new content. Although in recent years this has improved to some degree.
The Future: Shadowlands, the latest expansion, is launching this fall.

DGheFjD.png?1

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Released: 2019
Cost: $20 (Same base game as modern WoW)
Payment Model: Subscription (also offers access to modern WoW; can buy game time with in-game money in Modern WoW)
Frequent Compliments: It's old-school WoW, with all the quality of life stuff removed. This facilitates a more meaningful leveling experience and more social interaction between players.
Frequent Complaints: It's old-school WoW, with all the quality of life stuff removed. This means a lot of stuff is more a pain in the ass, like getting a group together. It also means the past 15 years of content are largely gone, so no new races or classes. For people that enjoy that scene, WoW Classic is not a perfect replica of its 2005 self. Layering has been criticized as a modern feature that has been interfering with play.
The Future: The game is locked at Patch 1.12, but PvP features and raid content will be available in staggered releases. The game is currently at Phase Five, and the final phase is expected to launch this fall. After that, Blizzard has been heavily hinting at a legacy Burning Crusade server.

Developer: Square-Enix, but players will tell you Yoshi-P
Released: Originally 2010; A Realm Reborn 2013
Cost: $60 (Includes Base Game and all three expansions)
Payment Model: Tiered Subscription ($15/mo at 8 characters per World or $13/mo @ 1 character per World) + Cash Shop
Frequent Compliments: Beautiful game with varied content including raids and playing dress-up. Job system means you never need to roll an alt and can play every class on one character. Crafting are treated like classes unto themselves, and thus can get very deep. Excellent story experience for leveling with tons of stuff for Final Fantasy fans to geek out over. Some of the fastest content delivery out there, normally offering something new every 2-3 months. Robust player and guild housing.
Frequent Complaints: Combat may seem slower thanks to higher global cooldown on skills. Need to complete story before doing Heavensward expansion content (including access to new expansion classes; subsequent expansions avoid this), which can take well over 18 hours to complete. PvP is kinda weird. Housing can be very expensive/limited, although you can buy a personal room at your guild's house. There are no male Viera.
The Future: The expansion Shadowbringers has been released, and a new expansion should be announced in late 2020/early 2021.

Developer: Arenanet
Released: 2012
Cost: Free; $30 for all expansions (Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire)
Payment Model: Cash Shop, but gems can be bought with gold
Frequent Compliments: Dispenses with the "holy trinity" of tank/heal/damage. Emphasis on builds over having 30 skills to remember. Excellent PvP, with both huge World PvP zones and special structured PvP battlegrounds for a more level playing field. Breaks up the standard MMO progression with no quests but rather events and special renown hearts that offer more freedom in how one levels. Living Story provides regular content updates. No real gear grind at endgame.
Frequent Complaints: The lack of holy trinity makes combat feel a bit loose and weird for some. Instanced PvE content is present, but added to the game infrequently. There is regular content, but up until season two all Living Story content was temporary. You have to pay for older story content if you miss it.
The Future: A new expansion, End of Dragons, has been announced.

Developer: Bioware
Release: 2011
Cost: Free, expansions are paid-for or available free to subscribing players
Payment Model: Free-to-Play (Subscription Benefits)
Frequent Compliments: Perhaps the best single-player MMO leveling experience out there, with Bioware copying WoW's general design and adding a class-specific story with dialogue options and full voice-acting. Subscribers can level purely off this story to cap without having to bother with side quests. Companions are characters that you can gear up, send on crafting missions, or assist you in general gameplay. Has special content like starship missions which are akin to Starfox-esque gameplay.
Frequent Complaints: Free-to-play model is considered among the worst in MMOs, with stuff like your quickbars being tied to the system. Voice-acted, but you will eventually noticed a lot of canned responses that get frequently recycled. PvE content is generally seen as good, but not quite as good as WoW's from which it heavily borrows. It's Star Wars, but Old Republic so your appreciation for the theme may be lessened if you're more a fan of the original trilogy than the Knights games.
The Future: Onslaught, the latest expansion, was released last year and is receiving content updates.

Developer: CCP Games
Release: 2003
Cost: Free
Payment Model: Free-to-play, with subscription offering numerous benefits
Frequent Compliments: Huge PvP focus, with territory shifting among player-created factions. Features like spies makes for very memorable moments in the game history as a major fleet is destroyed from the inside by infiltrators. Fun galore for those who love to craft and farm and play economics. A game for the space sim junkies out there.
Frequent Complaints: High-stakes PvP, as you can lose everything in particularly bad engagements. Pretty cutthroat in general, as there are plenty of stories of people being scammed out of loads of in-game cash. Not a game where you can make a group with friends and have an impact until you're willing to play with one of the big dogs. A space sim, so if you're expecting WoW gameplay then look elsewhere.
The Future: Development has shifted to a focus on "quadrants," themed content updates. The first, Fight or Flight, was released this year.

Developer: ZeniMax Online Studios
Release: 2014
Cost: $60 + DLC packs
Payment Model: Cash Shop, Optional Subscription
Frequent Compliments: Good PvP that reminds some of DAoC's RvR. Interesting combat and class building. Has a good payment model, being buy once and forget it.
Frequent Complaints: PvE content was originally grindy and not very fun. Usual zerg pitfalls of world PvP if you don't have a good, coordinated group.
The Future: Running yearly themed DLC updates, with Greymoor being the larger update of the Dark Heart of Skyrim adventure.

Developer: Bluehole Studio
Release: 2011
Cost: Free
Payment Model: Free-to-Play (Subscription Benefits)
Frequent Compliments: Frequently praised for having the best execution of "action" combat, which is where you aim skills and they have hitboxes instead of just picking a target and pressing a button. Popori are rad as hell. Armor that isn't pandering to teenaged boys is pretty and/or awesome looking. The kinetic combat combined with cool looking monsters makes for very engaging gameplay.
Frequent Complaints: Full of fanservice which can be offputting. Questing and leveling is nothing revolutionary, and the story isn't anything to write home about. There is a race aimed at pedophiles.
The Future: So the NA publisher was shut down (I guess crappy adaptations of popular shows didn't work out), but development continues as the game was picked up by Gameforge. The developer was also cut loose by their parent company so I don't know. Everything is still in transition, so even the official site is down except for a very obvious placeholder. So I dunno. Do people even read this still? I was going to finally excise this from the OP until I realized its thread is still active. So shout-out to the like, six of you who still force me to keep tabs on this game.

The Graveyard
Sometimes you can't go home again. Check to see if your old MMO has kicked the digital bucket. Please note that, while we are aware of that some of these games still technically exist, discussion about private servers is forbidden.

The Matrix Online
2005 - 2009

Star Wars Galaxies
2003 - 2011

City of Heroes
2004 - 2012

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
2008 - 2013

Asheron's Call
1999-2017

Asheron's Call 2
2002-2005; 2012-2017 (Relaunch)

Firefall
2014 - 2017

Wildstar
2014-2018

Bless Online
2018-2019

Fallen Earth
2009-2019

Maple Story 2
2018-2020

https://goblinworks.com/

Bolding the interesting bits from the PR stuff:

An exciting new era in gaming begins with Pathfinder Online, a next-generation Massively Multiplayer Online fantasy roleplaying game currently in development from Goblinworks in partnership with Paizo Publishing!

Pathfinder Online is a hybrid sandbox/theme park-style MMO where characters explore, develop, find adventure and dominate a wilderness frontier in a land of sword and sorcery. The Pathfinder world is high fantasy in the tradition of epics like The Lord of the Rings, Conan, the Wheel of Time and Game of Thrones.

The Pathfinder setting includes many different classic and modern fantasy elements, from lost cities shrouded in misty jungles to decaying pyramids amidst deserts of burning sands to a fantastic island metropolis where folk from across the world live side by side with all manner of fantastic creatures. The Pathfinder world has a place for any story a player wants to tell. (For more information on the world of Pathfinder and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, please visit paizo.com/pathfinder.)

Pathfinder Online's robust trading system puts players in control of the world's economy with player-created items, consumables, fortifications, and settlements. Character-controlled settlements can grow into full-fledged kingdoms that compete for resources as they seek to become the dominant force in the land, raising vast armies to hold their territory against the depredations of monstrous creatures, NPC factions, and other player characters.

Social organizations scale from small parties of a few adventurers to player nations inhabited by thousands. As settlements develop, the surrounding wilderness develops more complex and challenging features, including randomly generated encounters and resources as well as exciting scripted adventures.

Sounds very intriguing, and there's some more details to be found in their FAQ:

What races will I be able to play?

The initially available race options will mirror the core races of the tabletop Pathfinder RPG: dwarves, elves, gnomes, half-elves, half-orcs, halflings, and humans.

What classes will I be able to play?

Pathfinder Online's innovative archetype system includes specific paths of development that reflect the classes in the tabletop game, so if you want to play a character that mirrors a classic tabletop class, you'll be able to do it. However, Pathfinder Online is driven by more diverse player activity than the classic adventurer-focused tabletop experience; Pathfinder Online players will be able to act as merchants, farmers, miners, teamsters, caravan guards, spies, and explorers, and in any other role the players choose to create. Characters will have a wide variety of skills to develop, allowing them to be highly customized to the player's preference.

Will I be able to play to 20th level?

Characters in Pathfinder Online don't have levels in the classic sense. They develop skills over time, and as their skills develop, and as they meet various prerequisites, they unlock new abilities similar to class features or feats from the tabletop game. Characters following an archetype path will be able to unlock a capstone ability much like the 20th-level capstone abilities in the Pathfinder RPG.

Will there be a cost to play Pathfinder Online?

We are planning a hybrid subscription/free-to-play model. Players will have the option to pay a flat monthly fee for complete access to all standard game features, or to play for free with certain restrictions, using microtransactions to access desired features and content on an a la carte basis. Pricing details have not yet been finalized.

Will there be premium content?

Yes. Several types of premium content can be purchased using microtransactions. This content includes "bling"—visual enhancements to the character or the character's property that have no mechanical effect; a wide variety of mounts that let you customize your ride and show your personal sense of style; and adventure content packaged like classic adventure modules that you and your friends will be able to play through as a group.

Will PvP (player-vs.-player aggression) be allowed?

Characters will be able to attack rival characters in most parts of the game world. In many circumstances, though, unprovoked aggression may carry severe in-game penalties.

I've deciphered the following out of all the information out atm:

Pathfinder setting (Golarion)
Player driven economy and world - some focus on PVP
Core races
EVE-style time based "leveling"?
F2P/Premium very similar to DDO

I personally am looking forward to another (businesses wise at least) DDO-ish D&D MMO, but it's a shame they have gone out with this news so early - I doubt we'll see a beta for years.

Darkewolfe wrote:

Stuff not in the OP:

Goblinworks currently consists of Ryan Dancey (former, fired CMO of CCP), Paizo Publishing CEO Lisa Stevens, and Mark Kalmes, previously a programmer for Microsoft, Cryptic Studios and CCP.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/38710/Former_CCP_Staffers_Found_Pathfinder_Online_Studio.php

So, as of last month, this is a team of three folks from CCP and a publishing company. The main guy is Dancey, who was fired from his last job marketing for CCP. This would be really cool, but I'm going to guess that it's much, much more likely to end up as vaporware. At the very least, the game is so incredibly far from existing that nothing they say will be in it should be taken as truth. They've come up with the game ideas, but not really started creating yet.

Screenshots X: Beautifully Expressed; Poorly Compressed

[EVE Online] Multiplayer Treachery Engine

[STO] Star Trek Online: Rise of Delta Rising Rises

[Camelot Unchained] Second Pre Alpha Test check list underway/Sound Engineer Stretch Goal.

[SWTOR] Chapter XI: Disavowed will be available next week starting 3/8 for early access

City of Heroes is dead, and it is never coming back.

[The Elder Scrolls Online] -- Tamriel Unlimited! Also, HOUSING!

[GW2] Welcome to Elona! Path of Fire Expansion is now LIVE! Praise Palawa Joko!

[Crowfall] Game of Thrones meets EVE Online. Early Access available now.

[EverQuest] 19 years of misery and memories.

[Phantasy Star Online 2] spit-take Coming to NA in 2020?! For real? Oh snap!

Final Fantasy 14! Shadowbringers! The best expansion to an MMO ever!

[LOTRO] I'll see you on the other side. The Barrovian Society 2007-2014

Black Desert Online (Orwen Server Ch. Mediah O1)

[WoW Classic] More full servers than Live.

[New World] Do you really want to live forever?

[WAR] Deader than the Tomb Kings.

[TERA] Now with 'Tera Rewards' to celebrate spending money. Page 29

[WoW] Shadowlands: Season 1 is live.

Final Fantasy the 14th, where the end of the world is on the way!

[WoW Classic] Burning Crusade Inbound?

Shadowbane Out Now on Steam! Yes, You Read That Right!

In-Development Indie MMORPGs

[SWTOR] Kira is best companion, y/y?

[DFO] Dungeon Fighter Online Global - 2nd Awakenings! M.Slayer, F.Mage out

[Palia] A new MMO about social sim + city building

[Lost Ark] - Western release finally confirmed (Fall 2021)

Ashes of Creation - Another PvP Centric MMO

The MMO Information Station: Help for Prospective Players

[Pathfinder Online] It's a Pathfinder MMO