WoD meets EVE

[Xor]

I'd pay $15 a month for a good MMO. Better than all this microtransaction bullshit.

 

[Whiran]

CCP got scared because their WoD plans were to make the game free to play.

When they added macro-transactions to EVE Online in the Inarcna expansion they lost a ton of subscriptions in protest. I write macro-transactions because some items cost the equivalent of $70 USD upon their release.

http://eve-offline.net/?server=tranquility

The release was called Incarna and led to massive feedback and threadnaughts. In the outrage people got overzealous and blamed "Walking in Stations" (the ability for EVE characters to be characters and leave their ships to interact with one another on stations) to be the cause of the macro-transaction stuff. That doubly freaked out CCP and they realized that they needed to focus on their golden goose by focusing in on the Internet Spaceships element of EVE.

Personally, I would have loved to have seen more Walking in Stations stuff but.. oh well. Done is done.

WoD's development was relying heavily upon Walking in Stations and the free to play model. The technology used in Walking in Stations was going to be the same technology used in WoD (as much as code can be shared between two major projects) but the loss of a significant number of subscribers caused CCP to shut down studios across the world.

It took EVE Online two years to recover from the subscription losses that resulted from Incarna.

Now that EVE is, more or less, back to where it was when CCP was heavy into development of WoD (and Dust 514) they might look at it again but somehow I think they are still shy of that project. After all, they have EVE Online, Dust 514 that is on-going, and they have EVE Valkyrie announced (even though that was a tech demo by a small group within CCP that created it as a side project with no oversight or official sanction). That's three major titles and all focus on the EVE Universe.

Could CCP put enough time and energy into WoD? I hope so but I am not going to hold my breath.

I do hope that WoD, if it ever gets released, comes out not as a macro (or micro) transaction based game of annoying expenses but, rather, has a payment model based off of EVE's model.

 

[set]

I think EVE has shown us quite clearly that niche games can survive on their own. EVE is as old as WoW. What does that tell you? Both are still profitable games today. EVE is doing a lot fuckin' better than AoC or SWTOR by my estimation.

And let's get real, the WOD MMO might have some amount of mass appeal, but WW games aren't exactly mainstream. It would be so much wiser to build WOD economically, to start small and build linear growth. Build the game in stages, $60 initial purchase to play, steadily lowering that price to $0 by the second year. Get the server infrastructure up, the code clean, and the features complete. During these first two years, the game will be supported by veterans and fans of WW/WOD - people can spend additional money to spice up their characters cosmetically, but MTX shouldn't be a focus for these first two years, it should be building a rewarding game that rewards veteran players and keeps them interested in the game. An overwhelming majority of EVE players are veteran players.

The moment you start designing a f2p game to appeal to the LCD you in turn create an anti-game - the type of game where hardwork, skill, research, strategy and time-invested mean nothing. It's this kind of game that flops, like SWTOR. It needs to have its own appeal that can entertain veteran players for long periods. Building a community, like they have with EVE, is something they need to do, before they try and open the floodgates to the masses. The purpose of going f2p is to get market penetration, not to try and appeal to every braindead fart that downloads your game. A niche playerbase can support a rich game.

If CCP goes too wide too fast they will sink. And I'm sure some of their concerns stem from cannibalizing their own market, but let's get real, DUST514 is a flop. Megaflop. And it's because they held back. If it'd gone on the PC, it would have only been good for them.

 

[J1M]

DUST was a stupid idea. The types of people who like MMOs aren't the types of people who like shooters. What were they using as their success model? Planetside?

They should have put that money into a WoD game. Aside from maybe Perfect World, there isn't an MMO that hits that theme and CCP have shown they can operate an unconventional MMO.

 

[set]

It definitely was one of those ideas that got too much traction because of CoD's success. CCP has a lot of investors too, who probably put pressure on this project to move forward since it seems so "common-sensy" to a crowd like that.

 

[Captain Crusade]

They should not make WoD free to play. It should follow the old pay to purchase and then pay a subscription model. That will keep the quality high.

Or better yet, they should go the NWN route, and make a standalone game that allows people to gamemaster by themselves with rented/owned servers with limited population (say 100-200). That will result in quality roleplay servers. Perma Death should be an option put in by the GM of the particular server

 

[set]

It would be an interesting approach, to have highly sharded servers -- I could even see it being where players can pay to run their own servers under some premium model. However, that seems kind of antithetical given CCP's history and technological expertise (they run one of the largest server clusters in the world and they're pretty big on one-universe one-playerbase).

 

[Mangoose]

Subscriptions model will keep quality high guys. Just look at games like WoW which clearly have improved since vanilla. Or, oh man, the constant updates to the senior citizen DAOC. TOR launched with subs and it's obviously best game ever, and so will TESO with its subs!

 

[Excidium]

What it does guarantee or at least what justifies a sub model is a steady release of content updates, which isn't really important in a player-run game like WoD will be would have been.

 

[Drakron]

What it does guarantee or at least what justifies a sub model is a steady release of content updates, which isn't really important in a player-run game like WoD will be would have been.

Someone already mentioned TOR, it was subscription and how many updates did it had?
What subscription amounts is a subsidized, you pay them money for them to have money, there is nothing that says they have to release content or even work on it, heck thats was the biggest problem with STO were Atari was content on releasing the game and rank in subscriptions without investing a cent on the game.

Player retention is the main problem, without content people leave and TOR is a example, it had little end game so people grown bored and left leading to population issues were people that wanted to play end content being unable due to empty queues, the main difference of F2P and B2P and Subscription is that as in F2P/B2P you can always leave and not feel you lost anything because you can always come back, in subscription there is the feeling one must play each day and after they dump enough money they cannot just quit, this is why WoW survives this day as people there put so many money over the years they cannot quit and this is also why TOR lost so many subscribers, F2P allows "hooping" were one does not feel being married to a MMO specific and so subscription base no longer can count on maintaining population levels because they subscribed.1

Plus DUST apparently bombed hard, if they are going to go EVE with Vampires they are serious overestimating the interest people have on that type of MMO, the EVE crowd will stay on EVE because of the time and money they invested, they will not leave.

 

[Excidium]

Indeed

 

[John_Blazze]

What it does guarantee or at least what justifies a sub model is a steady release of content updates

I keep hearing this, but don't really know what it means. Patches? Fixes? Shouldnt that shit be covered by initial "box" price?

Because any content worth paying for are expansions and those you have to pay for on top of the sub.

 

[Destroid]

All of Eves expansions have been free.

 

[J1M]

What it does guarantee or at least what justifies a sub model is a steady release of content updates

I keep hearing this, but don't really know what it means. Patches? Fixes? Shouldnt that shit be covered by initial "box" price?

Because any content worth paying for are expansions and those you have to pay for on top of the sub.

Holiday events, dungeons, raids, balance patches, etc.

 

[Bubbles]

Yeah, like in GW2, or TSW, or the current version of TOR. Makes you wonder exactly how much content a subscription based game would have to crank out to noticeably outpace those titles in terms of sheer annual volume.

 

[Mangoose]

Yeah, like in GW2, or TSW, or the current version of TOR. Makes you wonder exactly how much content a subscription based game would have to crank out to noticeably outpace those titles in terms of sheer annual volume.

PANDAS!
MONKS!

I only played Vanilla WoW, but from what I hear the content inclined in BC, then kept declining after that. No switch in payment model, hell, they force you to pay for expansions on top.

Incidentally, Eve doesn't terribly need content updates, and people hated the content updates to DAOC. FFXI had a content update that basically destroyed the 'hardcore partying' level process, and it's still a sub-based game.

IMO the only game that has suffered from Sub-to-F2P is LOTRO. Though mostly because the payment model is shit, rather than any lessering of content.



Actually your mentioning of TOR made me realize that micro-transaction/F2P games depend just as much on content updates, in order to keep the player coming back and paying for microtransactions. Not only TOR, but Neverwinter clearly puts out content quite often.



Edit: In conclusion, from what I've seen, it doesn't matter what payment model a game is. It all depends on the competence and ethics of the developer (and publisher too I guess).

However I would agree that a game that doesn't require an initial fee ("buying the game box") is most likely going to suck it up with shitty microtransactions. Then again GW2 sucks so eh...

 

[Mangoose]

What it does guarantee or at least what justifies a sub model is a steady release of content updates

I keep hearing this, but don't really know what it means. Patches? Fixes? Shouldnt that shit be covered by initial "box" price?

Because any content worth paying for are expansions and those you have to pay for on top of the sub.

Holiday events, dungeons, raids, balance patches, etc.

• Hunter Ranger playable class: This new class is deadly from afar and has incredible damage capabilities up close as well. Log in and play as one now!
• Hunter Ranger Booster Pack: This pack is now available for purchase in the Zen Market. Get a head start on your new Hunter Ranger!
• Dread Ring Campaign: Enter the Dread Ring and encounter new foes. If you survive, you'll be able to face Valindra Shadowmantle herself.
• Active Companion Bonus System: Each active companion will grant bonuses for your character giving you an extra edge in combat!
• Collections System: Track all of your existing loot and hunt for new loot, including missing set items, with this system.
• New Paragon Paths for existing classes: New skills are now available for existing classes! Which path will you choose? Learn more about it here in part one and part two of our Dev Blogs.
• Artifacts System: This new item type is now added to Neverwinter. These items will become permanent fixtures for your character, and will be able to level up and get more powerful as you advance.
• Sword Coast Adventures (coming very soon!): Send companions out to complete tasks to earn rewards and gain companion experience, all through the Neverwinter Gateway!
• Item Progression System: Read more about changes and improvements to the fusing system in Neverwinter.

All this free, and all this coming from a F2P game to which you don't even have to buy the box/game initially (not saying it's a good game now). Yeah, they do (boring) Holiday events, and lots of balance patches.

 

[Kane]

yeah too bad the game is a boring shitfest.

 

[J1M]

What it does guarantee or at least what justifies a sub model is a steady release of content updates

I keep hearing this, but don't really know what it means. Patches? Fixes? Shouldnt that shit be covered by initial "box" price?

Because any content worth paying for are expansions and those you have to pay for on top of the sub.

Holiday events, dungeons, raids, balance patches, etc.

• Hunter Ranger playable class: This new class is deadly from afar and has incredible damage capabilities up close as well. Log in and play as one now!
• Hunter Ranger Booster Pack: This pack is now available for purchase in the Zen Market. Get a head start on your new Hunter Ranger!
• Dread Ring Campaign: Enter the Dread Ring and encounter new foes. If you survive, you'll be able to face Valindra Shadowmantle herself.
• Active Companion Bonus System: Each active companion will grant bonuses for your character giving you an extra edge in combat!
• Collections System: Track all of your existing loot and hunt for new loot, including missing set items, with this system.
• New Paragon Paths for existing classes: New skills are now available for existing classes! Which path will you choose? Learn more about it here in part one and part two of our Dev Blogs.
• Artifacts System: This new item type is now added to Neverwinter. These items will become permanent fixtures for your character, and will be able to level up and get more powerful as you advance.
• Sword Coast Adventures (coming very soon!): Send companions out to complete tasks to earn rewards and gain companion experience, all through the Neverwinter Gateway!
• Item Progression System: Read more about changes and improvements to the fusing system in Neverwinter.

All this free, and all this coming from a F2P game to which you don't even have to buy the box/game initially (not saying it's a good game now). Yeah, they do (boring) Holiday events, and lots of balance patches.

To be fair a lot of what you listed is just them completing systems that weren't done in time for launch. In principal I agree with you that if you are paying monthly, you shouldn't need to be buying expansions as well.

 

[Mangoose]

To be fair a lot of what you listed is just them completing systems that weren't done in time for launch.

How so? For one, those are the notes for the 2nd major update, not the 1st major update. Secondly, they had 5 complete classes at launch that were fine. Hunter-Ranger is a new class. Actually they were planning to have released a 7th class by now.

The Dread Ring Campaign is another set of post-launch end-game content. The 1st major update already released another set of end-game content, "Sharandar."

Might as well show the list for the update that came before the aforementioned:

Spoiler

Fury of the Feywild is coming up next Thursday, August 22, and we’re excited to give you a sneak peak of some of the balance and gameplay updates that are coming with the Module 1 launch!



A much-abbreviated list of the patch notes is below, and you can playtest these changes when they appear on NeverwinterPreview this week, alongside a host of Fury of the Feywild content!



Here’s a quick overview of some of the updates coming along with Fury of the Feywild:



Salvage System, Dungeon Event Chests, and Astral Diamonds Updates – We’ve been listening to your feedback about the ways that endgame loot and Dungeon Delve event rewards work, along with the Astral Diamond costs of different services and items in the game. Check out Lead Designer dinohedron’s forum post for all of the info!



Rejuvenation Potions not usable in PvP – We want to make sure that only PvP-specific potions can be used in PvP, and are making sure that PvE Rejuvenation Potions can’t sneak past that rule anymore.



Class Balance changes – Class and powers are integral to the game, and it’s important to us that we take the time to vet any changes before pushing them to the live servers. With Fury of the Feywild, we’ll be introducing a host of updates to each class, based on your feedback, our own playtests, and information collected from the NeverwinterPreview shard.



Non-Augment Companions and Rank 30 passive powers – We’re continually working to make companions feel more and more powerful, and non-augment companions will now have a passive power that can be enabled at rank 30.



Bounty items and the Currency Bag – Based on your awesome feedback, we’ve moved Bounty items to the Currency Bag, to free up more space for uber loots and other items that you may pick up on your adventures. To make sure that you have enough space in your Currency Bag for all of those Bounty items, we’re expanding it to 36 slots.



Searchable Foundry Tags – You asked, and we listened! When the Fury of the Feywild Balance and Gameplay update goes live, searchable tags can be added to quests by players during the review process (i.e. "Story Rich," "Combat Heavy," RP," or "Exploration.")



Inventory and Zen Market pages on Gateway – One piece of feedback that we’ve consistently received is the desire to have full control over your crafting experience through the Gateway. Now, you’ll be able to, with new Inventory and Zen Market pages at your fingertips!



LFG and Trade chat channels – We’re introducing new LFG and Trade chat channels to help make it easier to find the groups and items that you’re looking for, while also moving that chat outside of the Zone channels.



Below is a sneak peak at some of the balance and gameplay updates coming with Fury of the Feywild. Please remember that these updates are subject to change, and keep an eye on the NeverwinterPreview forums for the full upcoming list of changes! And please feel free to share your feedback with us on the Neverwinter forums too!



Highlights



New Zone: Sharandar!

• Envoys of the Iliyanbruen fey have come to Neverwinter seeking help from powerful adventurers.
• Level 60 adventurers may speak to Sergeant Knox to investigate the plight of these envoys, starting with the quest, "The Mystery of Sharandar."
• Once players complete the opening quest line, they will have permanent access to the newest Adventure Zone, Sharandar.
• Players can come back daily for more ways to help the Iliyanbruen, and in return, they'll have access to new gear, new enchantments, and even permanent passive buffs!

New Feature: Companion Rank-Up!

• Companions who have maxed out on ranks can now be upgraded for Astral Diamonds!
  • The companion must be the max rank for their quality, e.g. Rank 15 for common, 20 for uncommon, and 25 for Rare.
  • Once the companion is trained up to that rank, a button now appears to Upgrade Quality.
  • When the button is pressed, a confirmation dialog will pop up, allowing the player to upgrade the Quality for Astral Diamonds.
  • The Quality upgrade is instant once the Diamonds are paid; the max rank goes up by 5 and the rarity of the companion increases one level (e.g. from Uncommon with a green border to Rare with a blue border).

New Feature: Salvage!

• Salvaging has once again been implemented for testing on NeverwinterPreview, with a few changes.
• Most of the information can be found here!
• There is once again a Salvage Trader and station in the western corner of the Seven Suns Coster Market in Protector's Enclave. Purple quality gear may be salvaged for Rough Astral Diamonds.
• Gear rewarded from the special chest that unlocks after the Dungeon Delves event is now Bind on Pickup – But now the player can chose one of the three available stat allocations for that gear slot!

New Professions: Weaponsmithing and Artificing!

• Weaponsmithing: This profession is a new source for Guardian Fighter, Great Weapon Fighter, and Trickster Rogue weapons. Skilled smiths will have the chance to create high-quality weapons with a new look and style, such as Greataxes for Great Weapon Fighters.
• Artificing: This profession is a new source for Control Wizard and Devoted Cleric weapons. Practiced artisans will have the chance to create high-quality focuses with a new look and style, such as Scepters for Devoted Clerics.

New Event: Summer Festival!

• Starting at 10:00 AM Pacific on Thursday, August 29, Sergeant Knox will have a quest to point players to the festival grounds near Neverwinter!
• The Summer Festival will be running for several weeks. Log in every day to earn progress toward festival-themed fireworks, a new companion, a new mount, a fashion set celebrating the season, and more!

Quests and Environments



Protector's Enclave

• At level 60, Sergeant Knox now guides players to meet Lord Neverember.
• Lord Neverember now offers a rotating daily quest that gives double the Astral Diamonds that Rhix is willing to pay.

PvP

• Rejuvenation Potions may no longer be used in PvP.
• Health power-ups triggered in PvP now expire when the player takes damage.

Control Wizard

• Arcane Singularity: This power now properly takes the caster's Intelligence attribute into account.
• Arcane Singularity: This power now properly deals full damage to level-scaling enemies, such as Call to Arms orcs.
• Chilling Cloud: The primary target of this power is now properly considered as hit by an AoE for power and proc calculations.
• Chilling Cloud: The secondary targets of this power are now properly considered as hit by an At-Will instead of an Encounter for power and proc calculations.
• Chilling Cloud: The visual effect on the third hit of this power now more properly represents its area of effect.
• Conduit of Ice: This power no longer incorrectly benefits less from the Power stat than intended.
• Evocation: This class feature no longer incorrectly stacks with itself.
• Eye of the Storm: This power previously added too much damage for the duration that it lasted. Rather than redesign the auto-crit aspect, it now procs a bit more reliably, but does not last as long.
  • This power now has a 3% chance to trigger from At-will powers, and is 3 times more likely to trigger from Encounters and Dailies.
  • Ranking up the power now also increases the proc chance, resulting in a 5-15% proc rate based on power type used.
  • Its duration has been greatly reduced, and now lasts for 2-3 seconds based on rank.
• Ice Storm: The lockdown time after using Ice Storm has been reduced by .5 seconds.
• Ice Storm: This power can no longer affect targets through walls or doors.
• Maelstrom of Chaos: Hitting targets with Maelstrom of Chaos now refreshes the duration of Arcane Mastery stacks on the player and any Chill stacks on the target.
• Maelstrom of Chaos: This power can no longer affect targets through walls or doors.
• Masterful Arcane Theft: The tooltip of this power has been updated with a more accurate description.
• Repel: The Spell Mastery version of this power now properly counts as an AoE for interaction with other powers.
• Shield: Shield Release no longer incorrectly multiplies its Action Point gain for every target hit.
• Shield: Shield Release no longer incorrectly builds a stack of Arcane Mastery for every target hit, resulting in situations where hitting 5 targets would both max the stacks while also instantly reducing its own cooldown.
• Storm Pillar: Hitting targets with at least a half charged Storm Pillar now refreshes the duration of Arcane Mastery stacks on the player and any Chill stacks on the target.
• Sudden Storm: Hitting targets with Sudden Storm now refreshes the duration of Arcane Mastery stacks on the player and any Chill stacks on the target.
• Feat: Alacrity: This feat no longer sometimes appears as though it's applied even when the player does not have the feat.
• Feat: Chaos Magic: This feat now has a new icon. When applied as a debuff or buff, the icon changes color based on what is applied.
  • Chaotic Fury is red, Chaotic Nexus is blue, and Chaotic Growth is green.
• Feat: Elemental Empowerment: Some powers no longer incorrectly apply a second stack of the DoT effect from this feat.
• Feat: Elemental Empowerment: This feat now properly affects some powers that it had previously missed.
• Feat: Focused Wizardry: This feat now properly applies to all relevant powers.
• Feat: Frozen Power Transfer: This feat no longer incorrectly extends the duration of other buffs and debuffs on the wizard.
• Feat: Lightning Teleport: This effect is no longer able to rarely trigger multiple times off the same action.
• Feat: Malevolent Surge: This feat no longer grants multiple stacks for killing a single target.
• Feat: Nightmare Wizardry: The wording of this tooltip has been updated to be clearer.
• Feat: Severe Reaction: This effect is no longer able to rarely trigger multiple times off the same action.
• Feat: Severe Reaction: This feat can now be resisted by immunity to Crowd Control.
• Feat: Snap Freeze: This feat was previously offering too much bonus damage for a feat that was so easy to access. The overall damage boost from this feat has been reduced by 5% and it no longer affects Daily powers.
• Feat: Wizard's Wrath: This feat now properly affects AoE powers.

Devoted Cleric

• Astral Shield (Divine): Healing is now properly considered to come from an Encounter power.
• Chains of Blazing Light: The chain no longer sometimes activates in a much larger area than intended.

• Flame Strike: Damage is now properly considered to come from a Daily power.
• Forgemaster's Flame: Ranking up this power now properly improves the Snare effect as much as stated on the tooltip. This improves the effect.
• Hammer of Fate: This power dealt far too much damage overall, so it's gained a new feature and had its damage reduced.
  • If the power deals a killing blow, the player will now regain 15% of maximum AP (at max rank). However, the power's overall damage has been reduced by 40%.
• Punishing Light (Divine): The cost to maintain this power has been reduced by 20%.
• Soothing Light (Divine): This power now heals for up to 20% more, based on the target's missing health.
• Sun Burst: When hitting both enemies and other allies at the same time, the player now gains 25% more Action Points from this power.
  • However, this power no longer incorrectly multiplies the intended Action Point gain per cast by the number of enemy targets affected.
• Feat: Cycle of Change: This feat no longer counts as an At-will power for the purpose of triggering effects.
• Feat: Healing Step: This feat no longer counts as an Encounter power for the purpose of triggering effects.
• Feat: Sovereign Justice: This feat no longer counts as an Encounter power for the purpose of triggering effects.

Great Weapon Fighter

• Bravery: Ranking up this power now affects Run Speed (+15% at max rank), but the Deflect bonus has been reduced to +8% at max rank.
• Crescendo: This power can no longer sometimes be cast while in the process of casting another Daily power.
• Crescendo: This power now grants CC immunity while active.
• Slam: The damage from this power has been reduced; it had previously done too much damage for its area of effect, duration, and utility, and the intent is to change its focus mostly to utility.
  • The initial cast now interrupts targets, and while slowed, affected targets now deal -15% damage (at max rank).
  • The power now shows its max estimated damage rather than its per-tick value, and per-tick damage has been reduced by 60%.
  • Rank ups now provide 1 additional second rather than 2.
• Steadfast Determination: This is now properly affected by bonuses to Determination.
• Unstoppable: Several odd cases have been addressed that sometimes caused Unstoppable to be toggled on until the player switched maps.
• Unstoppable: This ability has proven to live up to its name a little too well as of late. In both PvE and PvP it's adding a bit too much survivability for how often it can be used.
  • To help address this, the temporary health from Unstoppable now stacks with other sources of temp health, and is consumed first, but goes away when Unstoppable ends.
  • This means that the temp health granted by Unstoppable will no longer stick around after it ends, making it easier to build further Determination from the remaining temp health.
• Unstoppable: The tooltip has been updated to correctly state that it grants 8-16% temp health (based on Determination). This is not a change in the actual temp health granted by the power.
• Weaponmaster's Strike: This power no longer places a long-lasting visual effect on targets. The visual now lasts .5s and has been supplemented by a "splat" to let players know the effect is still active.
• Feat: Endless Assault: This feat now properly affects Punishing Charge.
• Feat: Focused Destroyer: The tooltip has had a minor update for accuracy.
• Feat: Master of Arms: The max Deflect bonus that this feat can provide has been reduced by 33%.
• Feat: Master of Arms: The first rank of this feat no longer grants a double bonus.
• Feat: Unstoppable Action: The feat no longer incorrectly increases Action Point gain for longer than expected after using Unstoppable.
• Feat: Unstoppable Recovery: The tooltip has been updated to properly state that this feat heals the player.

Guardian Fighter

• Combat Superiority: This class feature now properly affects Terrifying Impact.
• Crushing Surge: The string of attacks from this power is now around 17% faster overall, resulting in increased damage output.
• Crushing Surge: The heal from the third hit of this power has been increased by 15%.
• Crushing Surge: The third hit of this power no longer incorrectly benefits less from the Power stat than intended.
• Ferocious Action: This passive power no longer incorrectly activates at 20% health at Rank 1.
• Ferocious Action: The Rank Up info of this power now correctly lists the percentage of health at which it activates.
• Kneebreaker: This power is now properly considered as melee damage.
• Knight's Valor: Incoming damage from this power is no longer sometimes evaluated as an Encounter power for the purpose of triggering effects.
• Knight's Valor: This power no longer incorrectly multiplies its Action Point gain for every target affected.
• Supremacy of Steel: The follow-up AoE power now properly benefits from stats and buffs on the player, and is properly affected by defenses on the target.
• Feat: Iron Guard: A typo in the tooltip has been addressed.
• Feat: Pin Down: This feat now properly adds .1 / .2 / .3 seconds to Prone time instead of adding 10 / 20 / 30%.

Trickster Rogue

• Cloud of Steel: This power now has 8 maximum charges, down from 12.
• Cloud of Steel: Momentum is no longer maintained when jumping and throwing daggers.
• Duelist's Flurry: This power no longer incorrectly gains slightly too much of a benefit from the Power stat.
• Duelist's Flurry: When the bleed portion of this power is at 10 stacks, further applications now recalculate damage in addition to refreshing the duration.
• Gloaming Cut: This power works best as an execute, but lacked the damage to fill that role. To help it better serve its function, it now deals up to 50% more damage (at max rank) based on the target's missing health. In addition, rank 3 of the power now provides more Stealth on kill, and rank 1 provides slightly less.
• Lurker's Assault: This power now grants 15 / 20 / 25% bonus damage, down from 20 / 40 / 60%.
• Lurker's Assault: This power now teleports the player to the targeted enemy, if an enemy is targeted.
• Lurker's Assault: This power can no longer be canceled by Disable effects.
• Shadow Strike: This power no longer incorrectly gains slightly too much of a benefit from the Power stat.
• Sly Flourish: The benefit this power gains from the Power stat has been slightly reduced.
• Wicked Reminder: This power no longer incorrectly gains slightly too much of a benefit from the Power stat.
• Feat: Speed Swindle: This feat is now properly considered a Control effect for calculations and procs.

Companions

• All non-Augment companions now have a passive power that unlocks at Rank 30.

Economy, Items, and Rewards

• Bounty items now go to the Currency bag when picked up.
  • Bounty tokens that were in the Inventory will be auto-moved to the Currency bag.
  • Bounty tokens now stack to 100, up from 40.
  • The Currency bag now has 36 slots, up from 24.
• Items purchased via Seals and Glory are now bound to the character when purchased.
• When a player has a full inventory and walks over items that are automatically picked up, the items are now properly left on the ground.

Foundry

• Tags - Searchable tags can be added to quests by players during the review process (i.e. "Story Rich," "Combat Heavy," RP," or "Exploration.")
• Improved 3D editing – We have added freecam for ease in making those larger structures as well as a full featured Drag and Drop interface for the Assert Library. We have also added support for editing encounters, NPC’s, clusters teleporters and more. To round it out we now support property editing in 3D as well.
• New Assets – We have added a host of new locations, assets, details and more to the Editors library. While most of the new assets are themed for Fury of the Feywild there are also plenty of author requested assets in there as well. We are looking forward to a Foundry Spotlight on quests telling tales on the Feywild!
• Improved Catalog Search – The Catalog now supports advanced searches. Advanced search is also supported on all of the catalog tabs. This will enable you to find just what you are looking for. You can use the simple search or get as detailed as you need to find the perfect quest for you.

Gateway

• Inventory Updates – Managing your inventory has just gotten better in Gateway. With the next update you will be able to claim and Refine Astral Diamonds, open reward chests, view your professions assets and companions.
• Obtain Supplies from Gateway – On the professions overview tab you will find a supply store where you can purchase your professions supplies, bags, and booster packs.

User Interface

• Chat
  • A Looking For Group channel has been added with /LFG and /LFM as aliases.
  • "Interaction Failed" notifications no longer write to the chat box. They still appear on screen.
  • It should no longer be required to press ESC twice to get out of chat text entry.
  • Pressing Enter to start chatting now enters cursor mode, and sending a chat message (with no other windows open) now leaves cursor mode.
  • The Trade channel now accepts /wtt, /wts, and /wtb as chat channel aliases.
  • The Zone and LFG chat channels no longer allow item links. All other channels (e.g. guild chat, party chat, custom channels, and of course Trade) still allow item links.
  • Trade and LFG are now default chat channels. Item links are now allowed in Trade.
• Inventory: Double-clicking to unequip a bag no longer sometimes causes that bag to disappear.
• Queue titles no longer have prefixes such as "Dungeon" or "Skirmish," as there are now icons that display that information.

Now I think I agree with you that part of Update 1 was probably to complete systems that were do to launch.

Still, all this was completely free. Game download is free. No sub. No cost for "expansions." (I still dislike the game though lol)

 

[J1M]

Well, I wouldn't call most companions being useless or most classes having only one paragon path complete game systems.

Other systems don't seem to exist for any reason beyond as another bar to grind.

 

[Mangoose]

yeah too bad the game is a boring shitfest.

It is, but we're not discussing the game. Just the payment model. Tell me the $15/month for WoW guarantees better content updates.

Besides, name 5 MMOs that are not boring shitfests.

Well, I wouldn't call most companions being useless or most classes having only one paragon path complete game systems.

Other systems don't seem to exist for any reason beyond as another bar to grind.

That's nice.

Back on topic, the patches add raids/dungeons, does class balance, also does holiday events that I didn't show, without needing a sub or even an initial fee.

 

[Kane]

yeah too bad the game is a boring shitfest.

It is, but we're not discussing the game. Just the payment model. Tell me the $15/month for WoW guarantees better content updates.

Besides, name 5 MMOs that are not boring shitfests.

Ultima Online
Darkfall Online
Planetside 1
Planetside 2
Star Wars Galaxies
Dark Age of Camelot

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/02/14/ccp-taking-cues-from-dayz-rust-for-world-of-darkness/

CCP Taking Cues From DayZ, Rust For World Of Darkness
By Nathan Grayson on February 14th, 2014 at 12:00 pm.

CCP might be best known for EVE Online, but they’ve had another project burbling away in their developmental cauldron since basically the dawn of time. World of Darkness, based on White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade setting, is technically existent, though CCP has become quite adept at keeping it shrouded in, er, darkness. But every once in a while some news slips out, and not all of it is good. For instance, the World of Darkness team recently laid off 15 members of its rather small (for an MMO) force. So then, what’s going on behind-the-scenes? Should we be worried? And how is the game evolving? I asked CCP CEO Hilmar Pétursson, and here’s what he told me.

The World of Darkness family table is missing a few fanged faces, but Pétursson was adamant that it’s not a signal of dark (light?) times ahead. Instead, it was a structural team. The game is still evolving rapidly, and a larger team size was simply causing too many bottlenecks.

“What we’ve seen is, increasing focus for teams also comes from the size of the team,” he explained to RPS. “And when you’re still innovating and figuring out how you’re game’s going to work, a bigger team takes longer to do that. So again, the layoffs were more about focus and creating an environment where teams can be successful with their priorities. That’s something we’ve had to work a lot on as we’ve grown. We’ve grown very fast. We were not very well structured for the complicated strategy we’ve been executing. We’ve been working a lot on that.”

As for the game itself, CCP is keeping an open mind. Nothing’s set in stone just yet (yes, still), which means the sandbox MMO maven can observe the successes and failures of others before committing. And hey, wouldn’t you know it, sandbox survival games like DayZ and Rust are seeing an awful lot of success right now.

“The core dynamics of being human or vampire haven’t changed, but we’ve certainly been taking inspiration from a lot of recent things,” said Pétursson. ”For example, DayZ and Rust, which have shown us the power of a sandbox when you bring it into a more recognizable context.”

“The creators of those experiences often reference EVE Online as an inspiration for their things. We’re now cross-inspired by what we’re seeing there. How the absence of all these structured game mechanics – by just allowing these natural interactions to happen – that is something we’re definitely incorporating into how we think about World of Darkness.”

When I asked if World of Darkness was heading in a more survival-oriented direction, Pétursson was hesitant to make any promises. But his point was clear: CCP is watching DayZ, Rust, and their ilk, and World of Darkness is changing with the times.

So then, when will we see the fruits of all this shadowy labor? While CCP is very much sticking to its “when it’s done” stance for release, Pétursson suggested that we can probably expect to see something at EVE Fanfest in May. It’s a Fanfest tradition, after all. For now, though, there’s precious little info available. Well, at least we know it’ll have vampires.

Unless they’ve been replaced with zombies.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

yeah too bad the game is a boring shitfest.

It is, but we're not discussing the game. Just the payment model. Tell me the $15/month for WoW guarantees better content updates.

Besides, name 5 MMOs that are not boring shitfests.

Ultima Online
Darkfall Online
Planetside 1
Planetside 2
Star Wars Galaxies
Dark Age of Camelot

Planetside 2?

Dropped the ball hard.