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PC Games (Games) Role Playing (Games)

MMO Gaming Expansions Released, Announced 30

Posted by Zonk from the more-mmog-for-your-buck dept.
News regarding two new expansions to Massively Multiplayer Games today. Thanks to Gamespot for the fascinating news that Asheron's Call 2 will roll out a new expansion sometime in the future. This announcement was anticipated after Turbine's purchase of Asheron's Call 1 and 2 from Microsoft, but no firm details had yet to be announced. Meanwhile, Yahoo has the press release on Planetside: Aftershock's release today. The waning FPS massive game has finally been reduced to the reasonable price of $20. The new offering includes the core game, the first expansion, and a new expansion that incorporates mechs into the game.
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MMO Gaming Expansions Released, Announced More

MMO Gaming Expansions Released, Announced

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  • EQ2 (Score:2, Funny)

    by stanmann ( 602645 )
    Also announced that there will be expansions, as soon as it gets out of beta testing.

    • Re:EQ2 (Score:2, Funny)

      by glowimperial ( 705397 )
      I hear SWG is going to have expansions, as soon as their beta finishes, as well.
    • On a serious note this is not far off.
      In an interview in game developer magazine they said they were aiming at 2 expansion packs a year for EQ2.

  • It's got no niche. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hivemind_mvgc ( 823238 ) <hivemind@mvgc.net> on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @01:57PM (#10567366) Homepage
    Planetside is having a hard time for two reasons: 1. Most new FPS games coming out support up to 64 players on a single server, and the netcode is good enough that you don't need a T3 to run a server. It's hard to pitch the idea of $13 a month to a gamer who can buy Battlefield Vietnam once and play on packed servers for free. 2. The Planetside dev team cut out pretty much everything that had anything to do with an RPG during the beta testing, so there's no long term goals, no "loot", no personalization of player stats... It's purely an MMOFPS. There's no role-playing aspect whatsoever, so you're not gonna appeal to the usual MMO crowd. I mean, the people who wanna shoot stuff buy a (free play) FPS. The people who wanna roleplay buy an RPG. And the people who wanna be elf mangina play EQ or Lineage II. :)
    • You forgot that it also has the Sony Online Entertainment stigma against it. Their games are associated with bugs and poor management. Many players of SWG have sworn never to play a SOE MMO again.
    • Totally agree.
      When planetside was first coming out I asked the fan what the benifit it had to BF1942 and the only answer was that cheap programs would be handled at a quicker rate.
      Frankly I would love a MMOFPS that had bridges/factories/etc that could be destroyed and rebuilt, which had an actually effect on the war. IE get a group of your side to a factory destroy it and that side gets a minor penalty in armor quality, blow up thier ammo factories they fire less often.
      Then tie that in with maps that
      • Well, bridges and factories cannot be destroyed BUT Tech plant generators and AMSs and cavern links and much more. And that has big consequences on the result of the fight. There is plenty of strategy in PlanetSide. But without laying your eyes upon it you won't see it of course.
      • > Frankly I would love a MMOFPS that had bridge
        > factories/etc that could be destroyed and
        > rebuilt, which had an actually effect on
        > the war.

        There are different kinds of bases that
        have different kind of benefits.

        Tech Plants give access to medium tanks
        and ground attack aircraft. If the enemy
        has captured or disabled your techplants
        than you are screwed.

        Interlink facilities enhance your radar,
        bio centers decrease time to spawn and so on.
      • Planetside allows you to "destroy" enemy facilites, though on a temporary basis. There are several base types in the game, each providing a benifit to all the others that are connected to it via a "lattice" system similar to UT's node system (by 'similar' I mean UT ripped it off directly ;). If you drop (destroy) the generator at a facility the enemy owns, all bases connected to it lose the benifit provided by that base type. That means you can stop the enemy from producting main battle tanks temporarily by
    • Arg this post is incorrect...

      > 64 players on a single server,
      > and the netcode is good enough

      PlanetSide has excellent netcode and
      battles of up to 500 players on the same map.
      Due to the recent expansion I see two
      full (population locked) maps every evening.

      > $13 a month to a gamer who can buy Battlefield
      > Vietnam once and play on packed servers for free

      PlanetSide gives you:
      - daily forum discussions with developers often even on sundays
      - good servers
      - a redefinition of "packed"
      - regular updates

  • Planetside: Aftershock (Score:3, Informative)

    by Dragoon412 ( 648209 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @03:20PM (#10568234)
    Planetside: Aftershock isn't an expansion, it's just a bundle of Planetside with the (rightfully) maligned Core Combat expansion. They mechs they're advertising (BFRs) on the box are free to any subscriber that has Core Combat.
    • PlanetSide is updated twice a month. This time 9 MechWarriors are added to the game and this is marketed as an expansion. This is a huge update so it can be called an expansion. Before their were tanks, aircraft, infantry and mini-mechs. MechWarriors fill their own role in the rock-paper-scyssor aspect. If tanks are cavalry than MechWarriors are elephant archers.
  • Shadowbane also has an expansion coming out in November...I forget the name of it, though.

    • Re:Shadowbane (Score:2, Interesting)

      by durenthal ( 733611 )
      It's called Throne of Oblivion, and looks to be a major upgrade to the sieging system in Shadowbane, lending more purpose to the pillaging of one's neighbours. Shadowbane is still suffering from lag, lack of quests, lack of dungeons, a dated graphics engine, and an abysmal physics engine. It's a real shame, because the concept and the lore are far and away the best in the MMORPG crowd.
      • I know what you mean. I loved everything about Shadowbane, except for actually playing it.

        Hopefully Meridian will just write a book someday, and I can just read that.

    • Has shadowbane released the fun patch yet? You know, the one thats supposed to make the game enjoyable?

      How about some anti-burnout patches? I've never seen seasoned guild eladers burn out so quickly as in that game. It was brutal.

  • AC2 was never one of the most popular... (Score:3)

    by Shivetya ( 243324 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @04:29PM (#10568948) Homepage Journal
    Gamespot is nothing more than a corporate shrill.

    AC2 died before birth. A horrid beta where the developers ignored the constant and loud complaints that all proved true in release.

    The hubris of the AC2 developers killed the game. Immense cities in which no building was enterable served no other purpose that being monuments to the developers. Even their first liason to the public spoke of coming down from the ivory tower to the unwashed masses (ie the players)

    AC2 died because Turbine stopped responding to their fans. AC2 failed because Turbine made the story more important than the fans. They forced the players to adhere to the story instead of becoming the story.

    Turbine, particulary Jessica (it) hates negative comments about their game. Going so far as requiring fan boards they deem to visit to remove the posts and posters else suffer exclusion from developer interaction.

    Turbine is also where the phrase "Exploit Early Exploit Often" came about. They are the only MMORPG company to ACTIVELY allow attended combat macros (AC1). This software (know as decal) listens and acts on the incoming client stream to automate much if not all of the game. It reveals things not normally known to the client and all of this is done with the knowledge and tacit support of Turbine. The new expansion for their first game even caters to the abusers of attended combat macros by support levels unreachable by other means.

    One big worry about MEO was that within a week everyone would have the ONE RING

    Turbine is just proof that even the most inept can stay in business.
    • You can not only automate everything but decal makes it very easy to do all sorts of stuff with the datastream. Basically it extends the capabilities of the UI FARFARFAR beyond what the developers of the game anticipated. Add to that UCM programs (WarBot) that have "stealth" modes that detect players well before they show up on radar and log you out, then wait a specified amount of time before logging back in. Plus they have alarm sounds in case an +admin actually shows up.

      The only people that play the gam
    • AC2 died before birth. A horrid beta where the developers ignored the constant and loud complaints that all proved true in release.

      I've been playing AC for nearly 4 years (unsubscribing this month) and participated in the beta for AC2. Basically, it looked like they took out everything that made AC good and slapped pretty graphics on what was left.

      Aside from that, I have never understood the whole MMORPG sequel thing. From a business standpoint, it's absurd. Fragment your existing user base in hopes of a
    • Most of the problems with AC could be blamed on microsoft more then turbine. If you go read thier original info on AC2 it was going to be an improvement on AC1. After microsoft took a more active role it became a bad would be EQ, DaOC clone.
      Since turbine purchased the game they have been removing alot of the macroing and other stuff of that nature.
      As for AC2 and building, the game is set in a post destroied world, who cares that you could not enter most of the building? There was nothing in them, nor
    • Most of the problems with AC could be blamed on microsoft more then turbine. If you go read thier original info on AC2 it was going to be an improvement on AC1. After microsoft took a more active role it became a bad would be EQ, DaOC clone.
      Since turbine purchased the game they have been removing alot of the macroing, other stuff of that nature and punishing/banning thoses that do expoilt them. However while combat macroing may be a problem is a shop bot a problem?

      As for AC2 and building, the game is
  • Well PlanetSide will go down the tube anyways because UT and BF offer pretty much massively multiplayer without a monthly subscription or anything, and the mod capabilities are way higher. AC is nothing special, an expansion to an MMO is nothing really new. Mostly just getting you to shell out 30$ for something a programmer doodled with in his spare time...
    • Planetside is actually a pretty amazing game, frankly different and better for what it is than UT and BF. I admit it takes some getting used to, I was a bit put off at first, but after a year+ of play, I'm still going back to it. (Though admittedly I take a month or two off at times when play gets stale before big releases) It provides tactical situations you'd never find in other games, like:

      -100 guys battling across a heavly contested bridge against artillary and air-strikes...

      -Setting up or crossing

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