Legacy of Darkness – Maquinas Outpost

I bet no one saw this update to the blog coming, following so soon after the previous one. I originally planned on posting this one tomorrow or Friday, but since we have some other things planned I thought it best to get it done.

I have also been accused of not wanting the EU community to have their first (re)view of the new dungeon come from some half-arsed source from another version of the game. This may or may not be true 😉

But first! I will go through some of the questions from the comments on yesterday’s blog entry. Someone asked about the new names of the crafted items. The name-order stays as it always was, so we will be dealing with a ‘Blade of Fatal’ instead of the arguably smoother ‘Fatal Blade’. Perhaps this will change with a later update, as we certainly suggested it.

Another person asked about cookies… I am honoured that my eating habits appear to be a matter of some interest, although I do not see the relevance to the update. (Chocolate chip cookies, if you have them thanks.)

Now, about the Astral Bikes. From my information the only way to obtain a colour-kit will be to buy one from the NPC, for 100 million. EST also confirmed a new change to the current coating kits. They will apparently change to a bike-kit-cube, which will give you either a low or medium bike upgrade kit. I have not been able to test this myself, unfortunately. I also don’t want to kill the excitement too much, but I suspect bike-upgrade-kits will be just another core. They certainly appear to be common enough to not be of a help to anyone planning on a get-rich-quick scheme. The bikes appeared to stay the same colour as they were before the update, to answer another question.

There is also some changes to the droptable. Osmium can now be dropped in the Forgotten Temple B1F, etc. I am not going to post the full tables, but I am sure they are floating around somewhere. Play the game and find out 😉

About Option Scrolls. EST confirmed that Option Scrolls can only be gained from transmuting slotted items. Option scrolls are also random, but if you transmute a weapon you will not get an option scroll that cannot be used to upgrade a weapon again.

Lastly: No guild emblems. We will announce if we ever get them. Take my word for it. I am honestly not sure where that question came from, but oh well.

 

********** POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD **********

 

Enough of the mundane. Time for the more interesting part of the blog update 😉 Maquinas Outpost. And let me say this right from the start. This place is hard. Very hard. You are going to get a nasty surprise if you go in there unprepared. I have seen several people make some very confident claims on the forum, about how quickly they will finish it, and I am very curious indeed to see if anyone has what it will take to back those claims up. As I mentioned elsewhere, [GM]Reeves and myself have a small wager going as to how soon the dungeon will be finished. Yes, it’s that bad. The last dungeon that this one can be compared to is the Forgotten Temple B2F. The Forbidden Island, Altar of Siena, Radiant Hall… They have nothing on this place. You might think that I am exaggerating now, but you will see. You enter behind the now non-aggressive Pluma, and that’s about the last non-aggressive part of the dungeon 😉

I do not think it is going to take as long as it took Tempe B2F to be finished for the first time, of course. Players have much better gear nowadays. Perhaps the right party, with the right tactic, might even finish it on day 1. Perhaps people will waltz through there on day 1, and I will look a bit silly predicting it to be so terribly hard 😉 I doubt it, however. I am very curious to see what happens.

Visually, the dungeon is impressive. It takes the general feel of Pontus Ferrum, on which it is based, and gives it a cleaner, tighter feel. The interior of the dungeon looks good, to put it in simple terms. I especially like the design of certain gates in there, for some reason. The bosses unique to Maquinas Outpost are quite cool – you might get plenty of time to admire them while your character studies the ground face-first.

Then again, perhaps you might not have as much time. You see, the dungeon uses a completely new game mechanic, where you start with a very small amount of time. Kill certain mobs, and you get a couple of seconds extra. Kill the wrong mobs, and you lose time. Kill a boss, and you get a couple of minutes worth of breathing room. To describe the dungeon as ‘fast-paced’ is rather accurate. You will have to be fast. You will have to hit hard, and you will have to be able to take those hard hits as well 😉 The bosses are not the only hard-hitting enemies in there, after all.

The dungeon layout is going to be confusing, at least at the start. There are multiple warp points, moving you from one zone to the next as you fight your way into the lair of the metal clan. The dungeon story also makes good use of the lore of the game, and I think it should be done like this more often.

The dungeon is short, compared to others (especially the epic-length Radiant Hall) but it is going to test you. And with the excellent Drei Frame pieces as a possible reward, not to mention the Drei Frame Epaulets, well… Players wanted a challenge for a while already. I think Maquinas Outpost delivers solidly on this.

New Korean Cabal Update

Next Korean Cabal Update

Newest first

==========

Update @ 23/03/2011
Original Korean Version : Cabal Online – The Revolution of Action

■ Changes
Quest UI changed
Added Quest Task list (Summary Information window) with Progress of each quest displayed
Allow up to 5 quests selected to be displayed in task list
Allow pinning Quest Task list on the screen
Allow moving Quest Task list (like Jukebox)
Dungeon Quest are automatically registered in Quest Task list
■ Additions
Added DP system (DP : Dungeon Point)
When cleared Dungeons (Mission Dungeon, Chaos Arena, DX Dungeon) DP would be earned
DP will be reset to 0 after 3 hours
Allow check current DP in Dungeon Window
NPC Hampton in Port Lux sells items related to DP system

==========

Update @ 16/03/2011
Original Korean Version : Cabal Online – The Revolution of Action
Google Translated Version : Google Translate

■ Fixes
Error when resurrection from death
Can’t enter Mission War
Can’t register favorite item in AH
■ Changes
Allow single player re-enter dungeon
In dungeon running time, if there’s an interrupt, players are able to re-enter dungeon.
Allowed situations
Character changing
Server changing
Disconnected Client
Allowed time range : 10 mins from interrupted time.
Upgrade by Force Core System Reforming
Added 5% to all upgrading cases.
Changes effect of Catalyst upon Upgrading Process
Changes the display of Epic items (items with Crafted options)
Divided Epic items into 2 categories:
Sub Epic : Craft Level 1-3
Top Epic : Craft Level 5-7
Change the display name & color of “Top Epic” items
Destruction -> Doom (Osmium Blade of Destruction -> Osmium Blade of Doom)
Luck -> Miracle (Osmium Armor Gloves of Luck -> Osmium Armor Gloves of Miracle)

Old : High
Change : Medium
Shadow Titanium & Aqua items now can be upgraded with UCM, Slot creating with SEM,…
Remove penalties of Mission Dungeon, Quest Dungeon and DX Dungeon
Change the locations of brand-new creating character
Help system upgrade

Only “Top Epic” items would be “Character bind after equipped”.
Update Bike Upgrade System
Bike could be up to +15
Added “Bike Upgrade Kit”
Bike Upgrade Kit (Low) : For “Astral Bike Blue” upgrading
Bike Upgrade Kit (Medium) : For “Astral Bike RW3″ upgrading
The upgrading progress will improve stats of Bikes. For example, RW3 +15 will have 95 Defense, 900 Defense Rate and Moving Speed is 950
Change the using purpose of Plasma Coating Kit.
Old : Bike Upgrading
Change : Bike Re-Coloring
Reduce required level of Blue Bike to 60 (old : 80)
Reduce item level of Shadow Titanium & Aqua :
■ Additions
Recover SP when finished dungeon, based on rolling dice
Based on BSLv of character
BS Lv6 – Bs18 : 0 – 5 SP bars could be recovered.
BS Lv19 : 1 – 6 SP bars could be recovered.
Divided all armors from Bluestin -> Osmium, that means:
Old : Osmium Armor Helm
Change : Osmium Armor Helm (WA) & Osmium Armor Helm (FS)
Update Aura System

It’s xmas time which means a new event!

The xmas event
 
Enable using the cabal_channeltypes command.Every monster of the land can drop White Socks, Christmas Presents,
Sock Formula Cards or a 10 day Santa’s Sleigh by a rare chance.Bad Santa’s found in Bloody Ice, Desert Scream and Green Despair can drop
White Socks, Christmas Presents, Sock Formula Cards or a 10 day
Santa’s Sleigh by a more common chance.Snowmen found in Snow zones have an even greater chance of dropping
Sock Formula Cards.Sock crafting:
A. White Socks(x5) -> Green Socks(x1)
B. Green Socks(x5) -> Shining Blue Socks(x1)
C. Shining Blue Socks(x5) -> Santa’s Red Socks(x1)
D. To get 1 Santa’s Red Socks, 125 White Socks are required.
 

Changes since v2.8b:

* Added a cabal_dos2unix command to quickly change all files to unix format
* cabal_config will now remove the autorestart cron task when run
* Added xmas event data to cabal_channeltypes!
* Defaulted droprate to 3x (better balance of items and Alz)
* Fixed Shiny Blue Socks FC saying Shiny Green Socks, yet making blue
* More bugfixes and improvements to cabal_patchtool

Notes: cabal_patchtool now packs all files again and this will result in buggy patches. Keep your old item.enc, data.enc and mob.enc or edit patchtool to not pack these files. If you didn’t read this be happy knowing that your bug reports will help me work out why these files are a problem.

Legacy of Darkness: Force Core Upgrading System

In this update to the Tester’s Blog I will be discussing the improved upgrading system. Or, to be more specific, the new Force Core Upgrading system, seeing as the general upgrade system was improved a while ago with the possibility to upgrade all the way to +15.

As most of you reading this will be aware of the fact that the force core upgrading system will change with the Legacy Of Darkness update I will simply try to clear up some rumours surrounding it. Random Option Scrolls, Defined Option Scrolls, etc, as well as go through some minor changes to the system. For the most part it is a visual change and some options to give you more control while enchanting slots.

I think the best place to begin is with the new Upgrade UI. Force Core Upgrading is still done through a Core Alchemist NPC. The first thing you will notice is that the upgrading window now looks different, appearing in the middle of the screen.

 

The different parts of the window is fairly self-explanatory. Clockwise from the top left you have the item being upgraded, the two different option scroll types you can use, the number of force cores you want to use (and a useful button to add all the force cores you have in your inventory, to the maximum of ten), with the upgrade cost and the success chance below that (the cost to upgrade the second slot is double that of the first slot, and I have not checked 3rd slot costs yet) while right at the bottom you have the attribute that will be added. It uses the old ‘cycle-through-the-possible-upgrades-and-failed-upgrade-icons’ animation that everyone is used to by now once you actually start the process.

So far so good, and not terribly surprising.

The main change, of course, comes from the new Option Scrolls. Transmuting items now gives you option scrolls as well as material cores and force/upgrade core pieces. The type of option scrolls you receive when you transmute an item is random, and the better ones are rare, as they should be. And yes, Critical Rate is one of the better ones. I know people were wondering about this. So is 2slot item drop, although I gather not as many of you would be interested in that particular one, vocal as the farming minority may be.

The rules for which Option Scroll can be used in which weapon/armour piece is still the same as it was before. For example, you cannot upgrade a weapon slot with MP. Those rules still apply, as the following table shows.

Nothing has changed here, at least.

OK, back to the Option Scrolls. You can get any Option Scroll from transmuting an item, and the grade of the Option Scroll depends on the grade of the item you transmute. Option Scrolls come in two types, Random and Defined (or Fixed, the dev notes and game change between the two names at the moment). A Random Scroll is exactly that, you can gain a random upgrade option from the available options, while a Defined Option Scroll allows you to control which upgrade you get, exactly like the catalysts used to do. The only difference is that you can now control the old level 2 upgrade options as well, with the exception of Skill Amp. 7% Sword/Magic amp is still drop only. You cannot get it with Defined or Random Option Scrolls. Everything else is possible.

The other change is that the Force Core grade, and Option Scroll grade is now very important. You can only use Option Scrolls and Force Cores matching the grade of the item you wish to enchant. You can no longer use highest cores on anything other than Mithril, Lycanus or Drei Frame Items, and so on. The item levels are in the following table.

 

You only need one of the two types of Option Scroll when you want to enchant an item. If you manage to get your hands on the Defined Option Scroll that matches the upgrade you want, congratulations, you only have to use that one. You do not need to add a Random scroll as well, in fact, it is much better that you don’t. The game will first check the Random option scroll, and if the random upgrade fails it will fall back on the Defined option scroll, and check that one for success. Think of the difference between using one or two force cores, with and without a catalyst, when you currently try to enchant a slotted item.

If you don’t have the Defined Scroll you want (Critical Rate comes to mind again, for some weird reason) you can still take a chance and gamble with a Random scroll. You might get lucky.

I just need to point out a small bug here, because I am not sure if it will be fixed by the time the update goes live. If you use a Defined scroll and a Random scroll at the same time the enchant result window will still cycle through all the possible outcomes, both level one (attack, magic, defence, etc) and level two (1slot, critical rate, min damage, etc) even though you can only gain one possible level 1 enchant and any of the possible level 2 enchants. Don’t panic if you see this. If you have a Critical Damage Defined Option scroll and a Random Option scroll you can only get critical damage in the slot, or one of the level 2 enchants, even though you will see other options once you start the enchant process. It has been reported, and perhaps it will be fixed before we go live.

The success rate is now linked to the number of force cores you use when upgrading. 10 cores will give you an 85% success rate for the first slot, and a 70% success rate for the second. Again, I have not yet checked the third slot options. The success rate goes up with 5% for every force core you add. The price to upgrade varies according to the type of item (Greatswords and Daikatanas cost double) and item grade level. The second slot costs double what the first slot does, for a 2-slotted item. Osmium level costs 500,000 Alz and Mithril level costs 7,000,000 for the first slots. The rest is scattered in-between.

I think I have covered everything now. If you do have further questions feel free to ask them in the comments, and I will try my best to answer them, either in the comments or with the next blog update.

Destiny

Millions of people have tested the game Destiny before launch. It is the largest beta test on consoles made for a game. Over 4.6 million fans have participated in the beta test for Destiny, which included some of the activities that will be available in Destiny, being the first time available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 dated July 17. Destiny Beta ended on 27 July.

“This is the largest beta test on the current generation of consoles at great distance from each other, as well as the largest beta test on consoles for a new franchise,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “Such a test, at such a scale, it is an incredible achievement for us and we’re excited about the phenomenal reactions from the community. However, the beta test was just a small part of what’s next. Already count the days until the release of September 9. ”

In Destiny, the action is set in a distant future, and players will assume the role of guardians of the last city on Earth and will pass through our solar system, the Red dunes of Mars, to the lush jungles of Venus. With a series of incredible abilities available to them, gamers will fight against the enemies of human civilization and will regain what was lost when the collapse period of glory of humanity.

Destiny will be available on 9 September for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One wi and Xbox 360.

How much does it cost the development of a game?

Using various sources, more or less official, Kotaku Australia has made public a list of games in which they are also recorded the budgets consumed to achieve them. It is to be mentioned that in some cases, the figure includes only expenditure with promotion, getting copyright, or purchase some of the licenses. Also, where it is not specified, the costs are expressed in terms of millions of dollars:

1982

E. T. – 23 (only for license); Frogger – 5 (only for marketing)

1992

Ultima VII: The Black Gate – 1

1994
Mortal Kombat II – 10 million (only for marketing); Wing Commander III – 5

1995
Full Throttle – 1,5
Twisted Metal – 0,8

1996
Crash Bandicoot – 1,7
Wing Commander IV – 10

1997
Crash Bandicoot 2 – 2
Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee – 2,5
Riven – 20

1998
Grim Fandango – 3
Thief: The Dark Project – 3
The X-Files Game – 6

1999
Crash Team Racing – 2,4
EverQuest – 3
Gabriel Knight 3 – 4,2
Resident Evil 2 – 1
System Shock 2 – 1,7
Unreal Tournament – 2

2001
Black & White – 5,7
Dark Age of Camelot – 3,1
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 – 4 (only for marketing)
Jak and Daxter – 14

2002
Freedom Force –  2
Hitman 2 – 3,5 millions of euros
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – 20

2003
Enter the Matrix – 67 (47 only for licence)
Jak II – 15
Toontown Online – 18
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst – 12

2004
Call of Duty: Finest Hour – 8,5
City of Heroes – 7
Driv3r – 34
Half-Life 2 – peste 40
Halo 2 – sub 20
Jak 3 – 10
World of Warcraft – 200 (Costs post-launch for four years)

2005
Advent Rising – 4
Call of Duty 2 – 14,5
Guild Wars – 20-30
Guitar Hero – 1,7
Jak X – 10
The Matrix Online – 58,5
Quake 4 – 15
Psychonauts – 11,8

2006
Anno 1701 – 8 millions of euros
Empire Earth III – 10
Gears of War – 10
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter – 18
Lost Planet – 40
Red Steel – 10 milioane euro
Scarface: The World is Yours – 2,5 (only for audio part)
Test Drive Unlimited – 15 millions of euros
Unreal Engine 3 – 40

2007
Age of Conan – 200 millions of euros
BioShock – 15
Crackdown – 20
Crysis – 15 millions of euros
Heavenly Sword – 20
Strangehold – 30
Stuntman: Ignition – 20

2008
Braid – 0,2
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian – 20 (only for marketing)
Gears of War 2 – 12
Left 4 Dead – 11 (only for marketing)
The Witcher – 20  millions of euros

2009
Borderlands – 30-35
Brütal Legend – 24
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – 200
Free Realms – 20-30
Ghostbusters – 15-20
Left 4 Dead 2 – 25 (only for marketing)
Star Wars: Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance – 15

2010
God of War III – 44
Gran Turismo 5 – 60
Heavy Rain – 40 millions of euros
Stargate Worlds – 25

2011
Allods Online – 12
Battlefield 3 – 2,75  (only for marketing via Facebook)
Call of Duty: Elite – 50
Dead Space 2 – 5-10 (only for marketing)
Dead Island – 40 millions of euros
Homefront – 50
Rift – 60-60
Star Wars: The Old Republic – 200
Warhammer 40k: Dark Millenium Online – 30
The Witcher II – 25  millions of euros

2012
DC Universe Online – 50
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier – 50 millions of euros
Papo & Yo – 1,5
The Secret World – 50

2013
Beyond: Two Souls – 20 millions of euros
Defiance – 70
Disney Infinity –100

2014
Destiny – 140
Watch Dogs –50  millions of euros