End of Nations Becomes a MOBA

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from the MMORTS.  A really long time.  But the first news from Trion Worlds is that they will be developing the game as a MOBA instead of as an MMORTS.

So what’s the difference?  You ask.

Well a MOBA involves a hero type who will level up and get stronger as you accomplish tasks+kill stuff.  In this game the hero is at the center of it all and he will be assisted by a tiny army… but keeping that hero alive is the main thing as he will become a bastion of mega strength.

By comparison the old End of Nations had various units with abilities they could use in which heroes were just slightly stronger units that not everyone necessarily used.

The switch makes the game closer to League of Legends and it is now expected that people will be able to buy “Premium Heroes” for play.

As well removed from the game is the overworld in which battles were being won and lost on a global scale.  Instead it’s now micro games in which you are trying to earn currency to purchase heroes and level up your avatar.

End of Nations Re-Enters Alpha

After almost a year in developer hell in which the game was basically dead, Trion Worlds has re-launched the title to re-enter alpha stages.

The game was being developed by Petroglyph Games.  Petroglyph gave us Empire at War and was composed of the team responsible for most of the Command and Conquer games.

They really have not done anything since Petroglyph headed to courts to solve legal disputes.

So End of Nations development was shut down and now End of Nations has been handed full on over to Trion Worlds.

Trion Worlds just finished development of Defiance.  Defiance’s sales of course were not that hot and has recently been knocked down 75% off on Steam.

In light of this Trion Worlds has decided to re-brand this title from an MMO-RTS to a MOBA with RTS elements (which is what it was closer to all along anyway).  Whether that means there will be major changes to the game or not is hard to say.

Thoughts on Ember Isles

With the launch of patch 1.6 Trion has released a hurricane of content. Released in this patch is a brand new zone including two 5-man dungeons and one 10-man raid.

It’s not all that polished of course. The new dungeons released have a number of bosses turned off simply because they were not ready for launch and are being worked on. Trion has stated in their current condition these bosses are unkillable. My guild mates ran into these dungeons only to find out they are road blocked by certain unkillable bosses.

So as far as a plot line goes you (and your server) have spent the last month gathering magical resources. These were used to create a single Travel Stone. You tested out the travel stone to calibrate it and after many tests it works. The resources you have been stealing have been from invading Dragons and Maw. Now you are going to take the fight to the Golden Maw at their island and home base, Ember Island.

Considering this is the home of the Golden Maw you don’t really see a lot of them. There’s only a hand full of these NPCs, it’s honestly just a giant jungle with animals. As a second thought everything here is Level 52. All rifts are level 52. Everything here hits like a Mac Truck. I almost have to drink up after every single fight.

The island is quite massive, it’s roughly the size of Shimmersand and has a large cluster of daily quests to boost. All of the normal quests reward inscribed stones and a lot of XP. All of this content was gulped up, in 24 hours. People are still going through the various new invasions the folks at Trion have released.

The patch released a number of achievements that I’m sure people will be interested in doing. I’ve done a basic layout of what the island is about in my video above.

Now on to my beef.

WTF Trion WTF! Why would you make a zone that is littered in high end lumbers and herbs. I’m sure all of the miners are upset too. I go into dungeons and collect rare herbs. I in turn sell them on the market for retardedly high prices because people need them. So now here is a new island FILLED with all the herbs and lumbers people want…. and I can’t make a profit because the supply is too high. It’s a little bit retarded how many resources are on this island and how easily obtainable they are. My only surmise is that the Chinese will not be able to get at them because you still need some gear to kill the mobs around.

With the exception of the herbs and lumber it is a pretty solid match fixing a lot of problems and giving us new content.

Syfy and Trion Worlds: Risky Business

It was announced about a month ago but was showcased at E3.  What we got to see was a very nice looking MMOFPS with a unique twist.

Unlike your traditional MMO where what you do does not matter the new Trion Worlds MMO, Defiant, will be co-funded by American space network Syfy and will help develop a new television show of the same name.  The goal here is that the changes in the game are going to have a direct impact on the scripting of the television show.

It’s a unique concept that gives the potential for huge success.  I’m sure Trion is looking at the massive success of Battlestar Galactica Online which has almost 8M players.  Battlestar Galactica Online is a game that is released years after the show was cancelled and far out of the prime of the television show.  However with Syfy fully supporting the game it has risen to become one of the most popular MMOs in the world.

The risk of this concept lies entirely on Trion Worlds.  Trion will be relying on Syfy to keep the television show running and continuing to write content for the television show and the game.

However this relies on two levels of interest.  The first is the interest of a gaming market.  If they can attract a sizeable audience to the game this will help keep the television show coming and since fans will watch it regardless (since they play the game) then they can continue to write the storyline of the game.  A show operates on a season so presumably the game can also have yearly or biyearly updates.

The problem comes in if the television show doesn’t take off.  I mean if the game doesn’t take off they can just market it to death and attract some size of a crowd.

But what if the television show doesn’t take off.

It gets cancelled.

Syfy is notorious for cancelling flops and paying for it later.  One of my favorite shows when I was young was Farscape.  This tracked the story of a mouthy captain who warps to another galaxy.  The show got cancelled after two seasons in which because of it’s insane popularity the show makers made a TV movie which ended up being one of Syfy’s highest rates programs (for the time).

Another good example of a show they just gave up on was  Caprica.  Now this wasn’t the greatest show by any means.  It was definitely an empty shell when compared to Battlestar Galactica (which it’s a prequel to) however it wasn’t an awful show.  It was a show that was just spreading it’s wings.  Unlike Battlestar Galactica where everything is purposely teched down to the simplest regions the city of Caprica is supposed to be a technological marvel which is so high tech the Cylons are supposed to be able to take it over.  So the show tried to illustrate just how gleamingly complicated and technological this society is.  They indeed showed that the Cylon robots just might have… souls.  But then before it went anywhere it got cut off.  In it’s place will be another prequel to Battlestar Galactica featuring a young Adama as a young pilot.

Basically if this show doesn’t take off after a season, Syfy will cancel it.  This means cutting off Trion’s support for the game and in turn cutting off their part in story writing.

It then falls on Trion, not Syfy to find an appropriate following for this game.  Sure having Syfy on your side will attract some people to the game.  However this is not a free game like Battlestar Galactica is.  Fans of BSG are going to be attracted to that game because it requires no purchasing.  This is the same with TV.  I wouldn’t want to pay per program.  That would be horrible.  So I essentially get my TV for free (minus that monthly subscription fee right?).  Now they need to try and sell this game which will be running the same time it airs.

The primary argument I make is this, if the show fails, the game fails.  If the game fails, the show fails.

In that right each has to be able to succeed on their own or they will fail together.

Codependency suggests that because you are both ‘in it’ you should be able to succeed with more room for failure.  The opposite ends up being true since human nature tells us to go for the cheap buck… not the long term investment.  Why else do you think that Lost

Free Character/Guild Transfers in Rift, Risky Move

Rift posted this today on their Facebook page:

“When the next major RIFT™ update hits early this summer, subscribers will be treated to a surprise – free character transfers. Trion Worlds announced today that with RIFT 1.3, players will have the ability to move to select servers in their territory once each week, taking all items, achievements, and titles with them. Additionally, guild leaders will be able to move their guild’s level and experience.

 “MMOs are all about playing with your friends no matter which server they’re on, and that’s why we’re offering this as a free service to our subscribers,” said Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer. “RIFT is both a game and a service, and adding free server transfers is just one more way we can make this the best possible MMO experience available.”

 Whether you want to play with friends, check out a new server, or avoid queue times on highly populated servers, you’ll be free to move about Telara. As a part of this grand experiment, there will initially be no limits on the number of times you can transfer your characters or guild.

 Character transfers will remain a free service for the foreseeable future, and could become a permanent addition to the RIFT experience.  Subscribers will be able to perform the transfers inside of the game itself once the patch is live.”

Free character transfers however may be a double edged sword for Trion.  In the past (in other games) when character transfers were offered all this did was make it so that low population servers remain low.  This essentially kills off these servers and makes it so they inevitably have to merge with another.

This change will only succeed if some pretty big raiding guilds decide to transfer to low pop.  Otherwise they just may be planting the seeds of their own destruction.

If anyone is interested in the 10 free days you can Ascend a Friend using my ID:

http://www.riftgame.com/en/products/ascend-a-friend/invite.php?voucher=EW3J73DCE9YQJMPD6NY9&utm_source=manual&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ascend_invite