1.4.5 Launches Today

Warhammer Online's 1.4.5 patch will be pushed out to the live servers this morning!  This is one of the largest updates the game has seen, as it introduces the new Fortress and Relic system.  Most importantly, it gives something new for the players to do.  Since the servers are down for the update, lets take a look at 1.4.5 content.

Q and A's

Fortress Q&A with BioWare Mythic
WAR 1.4.5 Q&A

Forts

Claming a Fortress
Relic Bonuses

Generals

Dwarf and Greenskin Generals
Empire and Chaos Generals
Elf Generals

Grovod Caverns

Sadly, I was unable to make the PTS for the revamped scenario.  Someone else did make a video though!  The voice you hear is that of WAR developer Keaven.

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Too Many Games

Every once in a while, the stars and planets align in such a way that a perfect storm of game releases occurs.  Could this be what the Mayans predicted would happen in 2012?  In the coming month, there are a bunch of new game titles being released which I am interested in.  I'm not quite sure how I will have time for them all.

Victoria II:  A House Divided.  This is the first expansion pack for Paradox's Victoria II.  Besides a US Civil War scenario, it includes some major economic and political changes which should make the game more enjoyable.  Check out this AAR (After Action Report) for a preview.  This should be released on February 2nd.

Crusader Kings 2.  Another Paradox game, which is shaping up to be very cool.  Taking place from the year 1066, the game focuses Medieval Europe. What makes CK special is that it takes into account all of the family connections and religious influences of the time.  There is a long Let's Play series on youtube.  This game is set to release on February 14th.

StarDrive.  The alpha test for the upcoming 4x game, StarDrive is improving constantly.  Just last night I got in my first fight, and it was a lot of fun.  I posted a video last week showing off the scale of the game and how firing your flagships weapons works.

Star Trek Online.  This week also marks the 2nd anniversary of Star Trek Online (Feb 2nd to the 6th).  As a part of the celebration, players can obtain a new vessel, the Odyssey class. It will only be available for a limited time, so i'm going to have to go get it.  Then later in the month, a new Featured Episode series starts!  These are the best part of STO, so I'm pretty excited.

Warhammer Online.  WAR's 1.4.5 patch should be going live very soon, and it is looking good.  A ton of work has went into the Fortress revamp and I can't wait to see how it plays out on the live servers.

Star Wars: the Old Republic.  I've started up my first alt, Tirew the Jedi Knight.  He's still only level 12, but a lot of fun to play.  I'm taking my sweet time in the game, as it's all for the story with me.

Mass Effect 3.  Technically, this is in March (6th I think), but close enough.  Can't wait to fight some Reavers!

I didn't even get to mention the backlog of console games and Wrath of Heroes which I want to play.  It's really pretty crazy, the amount of choices we have these days.  Oh, and I need to finish Skyrim.

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StarDrive Alpha Video

Testing has begun for the upcoming 4X game, StarDrive.  For an intro to the game, check out this post.  The game is still in its early stages, but I am impressed enough that I want to start showing it off.  First up, lets check out the scale of the game.

You are able to zoom out to a galactic view, then zoom in all the way to the individual ship.  The one is the video is your flagship, which you directly control.





At the end of the video I show off the firing arcs.  Each weapon has its own arc and range, making placement very important.  When showing the arcs, you also get a view of the ships design, which I found to be really cool.  I can't wait to get in there and customize my ships.

For more information about StarDrive, visit their website.

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Elf Generals

With the arrival of Relics to Fortresses in the Warhammer Online 1.4.5 patch, we also get special guardians called Fortress Generals.  What makes these npc's special is that players can assume control over them in order to defend their relic.  If they are not being controlled, they will act like normal npc's and attack when enemies are near.

Some things to know about Fortress Generals:

• They have a ton of health.  Healer archetypes have ~240,000 hp and the rest have ~160,000hp.
• Each has 5 abilities for the player to use.  
• They do not do a lot of damage/healing, less than most players.  However, some have some nice utility.
• The Fortress Generals are only available when a Fort is claimed.
• If you take a General too far away from the Fort, you will revert to your original form.  Dying is the only other way to drop the General.

High Elf Generals

General Telissys, Archmage

General Lanfenthi, Swordmaster

General Aeloyll, White Lion

General Noresiteal, Shadow Warrior

Dark Elf Generals

General Laneann, Disciple of Khaine

General Ridirthi, Blackguard

General Enorasaine, Witch Elf

General Norlafyr, Sorceress

More Generals:

Dwarf and Greenskin Generals

Empire and Chaos Generals

Elf Generals

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Empire and Chaos Generals

With the arrival of Relics to Fortresses in the Warhammer Online 1.4.5 patch, we also get special guardians called Fortress Generals.  What makes these npc's special is that players can assume control over them in order to defend their relic.  If they are not being controlled, they will act like normal npc's and attack when enemies are near.

Some things to know about Fortress Generals:

• They have a ton of health.  Healer archetypes have ~240,000 hp and the rest have ~160,000hp.
• Each has 5 abilities for the player to use.  
• They do not do a lot of damage/healing, less than most players.  However, some have some nice utility.
• The Fortress Generals are only available when a Fort is claimed.
• If you take a General too far away from the Fort, you will revert to your original form.  Dying is the only other way to drop the General.

Empire Generals

General Abagar, Warrior Priest

General Gelonas, Knight of the Blazing Sun

General Kabaspar, Witch Hunter

General Ralottolf, Bright Wizzard

Chaos Generals

General Webrell, Zealot

General Arthawrall, Chosen

General Thandiel, Marauder

General Alaynark, Magus

More Generals:

Dwarf and Greenskin Generals

Empire and Chaos Generals

Elf Generals

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Dwarf and Greenskin Generals

With the arrival of Relics to Fortresses in the Warhammer Online 1.4.5 patch, we also get special guardians called Fortress Generals.  What makes these npc's special is that players can assume control over them in order to defend their relic.  If they are not being controlled, they will act like normal npc's and attack when enemies are near.

Some things to know about Fortress Generals:

• They have a ton of health.  Healer archetypes have ~240,000 hp and the rest have ~160,000hp.
• Each has 5 abilities for the player to use.  
• They do not do a lot of damage/healing, less than most players.  However, some have some nice utility.
• The Fortress Generals are only available when a Fort is claimed.
• If you take a General too far away from the Fort, you will revert to your original form.  Dying is the only other way to drop the General.

Dwarf Generals

General Skobik, Rune Priest

General  Hengrudon, Ironbreaker

General Banlund, Slayer

General Nuzil, Engineer

Greenskin Generals

General Maggog, Shaman

General Pugratt, Black Orc

General Ragalitz, Choppa

General Gozras, Squig Herder

More Generals:

Dwarf and Greenskin Generals
Empire and Chaos Generals
Elf Generals

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Reborn

Earlier this week, I mentioned that I was tempted to make a SWTOR alt.  I'm sad/happy to announce that I have given in and rolled a new character.  I decided to stay on the Republic side, so I could build up my trade skill network.  The class choice turned out to be an even tougher decision.

I was very tempted to make a Smuggler.  It looks like a fun class with a lot of character.  However, there were a couple of things working against it.  One, I had already done Ord Mantell with my Trooper.  Two,  I have been using blasters a lot already.  As a result, I rolled a Jedi Knight.

Tirew, my long time WAR character, was reborn in SWTOR.  So far, I am having a lot of fun with the class.  Being able to Force Leap is pretty nice, and he makes very quick work of enemies at this early level.  Once he reaches level 10, I'll probably pick up Cybertech, Underworld Trading and Slicing.  That way I can keep my group of characters in Armoring mods.

SWTOR is having a bit of a rough week.  I won't go into details, as I'm sure you know.  Unlike some drama obsessed bloggers, it really doesn't bother me.  I am into SWTOR for the long term, so short term issues are not much of a concern.  Besides, it's just a game.

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Who needs a ship?

Stellar Fortune is an always evolving project of mine.  Will it ever actually see the light of day as a real game?  I hope so.  Until then, I use it as a platform to try new ideas and technology.  This week saw important changes for the project, which I'm pretty excited about.

Kendo UI.  Much of the work that has gone into the web version of SF is Javascript.  Using JQuery worked pretty well, but it soon became clear that it was just getting to be too big and complex.   I took a look at some frameworks and settled on Kendo UI.  It wraps up JQuery into a lot of nice controls, including a DataSource model.

Here is what Stellar Fortune looks like now:

Agents.  Since I don't want SF to be about combat (there will be some), it occurred to me, why does a player need a ship?  Customizing a freighter is only so much fun.  Flying stuff from point A to Point B is also not very exciting, even though the decision making process can be.

As a result, I made Agents to do all of the actual work and leave the decision making to the players.  In the trade example, a player would choose an Agent from a list, and he/she would move the goods for them.  Then the player would sell the goods.

Agents can also be hired permanently, if the player owns a company.  They can be trained for new skills ( pirating, factory management and so on) and given ships.  Most importantly, they can be hired out.  So beyond some starting Agents, I hope everything is done with player companies.

Now on to my current problem.  Space is hazardous, so Agents can be told to avoid sectors.  This will cause them to take a different route.  A different route means a longer trip, more fuel spent and the destination may be out of range.

The hazard could pop up after the Agent is en route, so what happens then?  If they cannot make it to the destination, does the whole job just get cancelled?  That would kinda suck for the player.  Recalculating paths is also not very cheap resource wise.

I'm sure there is a good compromise somewhere.  Range limits could add a lot of depth to the game.  The map is pretty empty, so it will be up to players to build the infrastructure.

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SWTOR Temptation

It took around a month, but my Commando has finally finished Chapter 1 of his class story.  Level wise, I am 32 which is what the final quest wanted.  Overall, I enjoyed the first story quite a bit.  I also felt that the final fight was pretty satisfying.  My companion, M1-4X, died and I was left with only a couple hundred hit points.

For my Legacy, I chose 'The Werit Legacy'.'  Crazy, I know.  I am very interested to see what else they have planned for that system.

Now on to the temptation.  My original plan was to play the Trooper until 50, then roll an alt.  However, now I'm wondering if I should start that alt right now.  The main motivator for this is crew skills.   If I start an alt now, his crew skills can support Quentin here in a relatively short amount of time.  If I wait until 50, they won't be useful anytime soon.

Then I start wondering if I should roll an Imperial Agent, which looks awesome.  He would be of no help Crew Skill wise to my Commando, but it'd be a different leveling up experience.  On the other hand, a Smuggler looks pretty cool too.  The downside is that I would revisit areas I just got through.

I'm not sure what I should do.  Start Chapter 2, or roll an alt.  Hmmmmm

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PTS Events

This week, Mythic will be holding three testing sessions on the PTS in order to test the new Relic system.  Each session will focus on a different pairing.

• Wednesday, January 18th  8-10 pm EST (1-3 am GMT) - Dwarfs vs Greenskins - Thunder Mountain
• Friday, January 20th  4–6 pm EST (9-11 pm GMT) - Empire vs Chaos - Praag
• Monday, January 23rd  8-10 pm EST (1-3 am GMT) High Elves vs Darkelves - Dragonwake

Templates will be provided, so stop on by.

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