CCP today revealed DUST 514, a console-based hybrid MMO/FPS set within the EVE universe. The announcement, which included a video featuring gameplay footage, was made during a keynote address by CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Petursson at the Game Developers Conference in Cologne, Germany.

DUST 514, featuring first-person shooter and RTS-style gameplay, will interact directly with EVE Online, CCP’s critically acclaimed flagship MMO. This interplay between the two games opens the EVE universe to console gamers and gives them a chance to become part of one of the most massive cooperative play and social experiences ever.

“We launched EVE Online in 2003 and have experienced steady annual growth– a fact we appreciate as a rarity in the world of MMOs, especially given the global economy of the past year,” said Petursson. “Our success with EVE Online has afforded us the highest caliber global design and production talent in gaming. With a team of the best minds in the industry, we conceived an ambitious new take on virtual world development with DUST 514.”

The primary gameplay of DUST 514 features brutal ground combat that takes place on the surface of planets from EVE, delivering the visceral, adrenaline-fueled experience of futuristic firefights. Developed for the current generation of consoles, DUST 514 combines equal parts battlefield reflexes and strategic planning, giving commanders and ground infantry real-time configurable weapons and modular vehicles to manage dynamic battlefield conditions.

Now entering its third year of production, DUST 514 is the primary development focus of CCP’s Shanghai studio. The team includes veteran designers of EVE Online and experienced talent from various sectors of the video game industry.

“Since opening our Shanghai studio, we have invested in building a team that wants to push the envelope in gaming and be pioneers in the industry,” said Kjartan Pierre Emilsson, Managing Director of CCP Shanghai. “Having led the design and development efforts of the project from start to finish, our studio is honored to call DUST 514 our first title release.”

Further details will be revealed at CCP’s annual Fanfest event October 1-3, 2009 in Reykjavik, Iceland.

hahahhaha , so cute !

Abilities

Attuned to Nature – This is a stacking buff that increases all healing effects done to Freya by 4% per stack.  Freya starts the fight with a 150 stack of this buff.

Bomb – Once in the second phase of the fight Freya starts throughout out bombs at random players in the raid.  They will land by 10 players in the raid and explode 10 seconds later.  They inflict roughly 9,000 damage (6,000 in 10 player raids) to everyone within 10 yards, as well as knocking them back through the air.

Summon Eonar’s Gift – Roughly every 45 seconds Freya will summon a small glowing tree called Eonar’s Gift.  The tree spawns somewhere within about 30 yards of Freya and will grow over the next 10 seconds, at which point it blooms and heals Freya and any other enemy targets that are alive in the room.  It heals them for 60% of their base health (30% in 10 player raids), and therefore it must be killed within the 10 second growing period.  It has roughly 65,000 health (20,000 in 10 player raids).

Sunbeam – This spell affects a target and everyone within 10 yards.  It hits for roughly 8,000 damage in 25 player raids and 5,500 in 10 player raids.

Touch of Eonar – This is a permanent Heal Over Time (HOT) effect that is on Freya that heals her for 24,000 health (6,000 in 10 player raids) every second for the entire fight.

Summoned Waves - Additional Creatures in the Fight (Adds)

Wave Type 1 – Detonating Lashers – The first type of additional creatures you can get are Detonating Lashers which spawn in packs of 10.  These small plant type creatures have no threat table and run randomly from player to player.  Anytime one dies, they explode causing roughly 8,000 damage to everyone within 10 yards around them. 2 stacks of Freya’s Attuned to Nature buff are removed for each lasher that dies.

Wave Type 2 – Ancient Conservator – The second possible type of creature summoned is a giant Ancient.  The ancient has several interesting abilities such as a silence and a debuff that is placed on a player and hurts everyone around them.  In addition, while he is active, mushrooms spawn around the room, which are used to deal with the silence effect.  All players must get under one, which will then remove and prevent the silence.  The mushrooms slowly grow and then disappear, meaning the tank has to continually move the ancient to new mushrooms, while ranged and healers find their way to new mushrooms as well.  His Nature’s Fury ability will target a random player and cause them to inflict damage to everyone around them, therefore that player needs to get away from the raid quickly.  25 stacks of Freya’s Attuned to Nature buff are removed when the Ancient dies.

Wave Type 3 – Storm Lasher, Snap Lasher, and Water Spirit – The last of the three possible groups of summons is a mismatched trio.  Each of the targets have different abilities and levels of health, yet all need to die within 12 seconds of each other or they will be resurrected.  The snap lasher gains a buff that increases damage by 10% each time it is hit as well as reducing its movement speed by 5%.  This buff can stack, so after a while it can hit quite hard.  Ranged players are the best at taking down the snap lasher since after 20 buffs it will be unable to move.  The storm lasher has hurricane and chain lighting spells that it casts that can cause a lot of raid damage.  Lastly the water spirit  charges random players and knocks them back. 10 stacks of Freya’s Attuned to Nature buff are removed for each of these add when they die.

Strategy

The fight with Freya is a very different fight due to the fact that at the beginning players will essentially not be able to harm her.  Her bonus to healing ability will allow her to easily heal through any attacks done to her.  This breaks the fight up into two distinctive phases, the add phase and the boss phase.

To start the fight the main tank engages Freya and the off tank (or tanks in 25 player raids) prepare to grab the adds.

Phase 1 – Add Phase

This phase is generally more difficult and requires more coordination than the second phase, so everyone needs to be on their toes.  In this phase you will get 6 waves of adds summoning, 2 waves of each type listed above, in a random order.  They spawn in two groups of 3, meaning you will see 1 of each type of wave before you see another of that type.

While dealing with the waves, a few players need to be assigned to take out any of the Eonar’s Gifts that spawn.  If any reach maturity at 10 seconds and get a heal off on any of the waves of adds. it will likely lead to a wipe.

This phase is all about controlling the adds as they appear.  The easiest wave for most groups is the Ancient Conservator, since essentially all that needs to happen is everyone find and stay under mushrooms while they fight him. Anyone who receives the Nature’s Fury debuff that he casts, simply needs to get away from the other players.

The second easiest wave to deal with is the Detonating Lashers.  Individually, these are very easy to kill, however since they cannot be tanked, and run all over the place, they can be difficult to AoE down.  Even if you could AoE them down, they would kill everyone nearby with the resulting explosions.  The best way to deal with them is to have the raid group up in one place, and everyone AoE until they are between 20 and 35% and then split up.  Everyone runs away from each other roughly 15 to 20 yards and starts single targeting any lashers that follow them.  Using this method, no player should take multiple hits from the lashers.

The most difficult wave for most raids to deal with is the wave consisting of the Storm Lasher, Snap Lasher, and Water Spirit.  Due to their differing abilities and health it is a coordination challenge to ensure they all go down at the same time.  It makes it easier if players ensure they can see all three of the adds’ health bars to monitor their status.  Also make sure everyone stays relatively grouped up so that the Water Spirit does not charge out too far.

Since the Water Spirit has the least health, the best strategy is to focus on the lashers first.  Melee DPS generally should focus on the Storm Lasher and ranged DPS on the Snap Lasher.  Once both lashers are at roughly 20% health the raid kills the Water Spirit and then finishes up the lashers, who will be almost dead due to incidental damage.

Once you have cycled through the waves of adds twice, Freya will have lost the bonus healing buff stack and can be engaged by the raid.

Phase 2 – Ground Phase

After the tense, hectic first phase, the second phase is relatively simple.  The only real addition to phase three is Freya’s ability to throw bombs.  They land where players stand, and all you need to do is walk away from them before they explode 10 seconds later.  Players are also required to keep watching for the Eonar’s Gift and kill it quickly each time it spawns.

Other than the bombs and killing the trees though, the fight is essentially tank and spank, and any group that reaches phase 2 will likely beat the encounter easily.








Original article is from tentonhammer .

lmao !!

A federal class action lawsuit was filed against Square Enix America earlier this week. The suit claims the company knowingly deceived 100,000 customers of their online MMO Final Fantasy XI by concealing penalties and fees associated with the monthly subscription service.

The lawsuit also highlights unfair advertising of the information on user licenses, restrictions and conditions, and charges while an account is suspended. Basically, Square is accused of doing a poor job of letting people know what they were signing up for in the first place.

So, you want to be a raider? Well, be prepared to put in some time. Raiding is fun, it has to be, it is the end-game for World of Warcraft. However, it is an expensive hobby that will require hours of preparation before one is even ready to raid and a continuing expenditure of hours to prep and prepare once one is actually raiding.

Just like preparing for any competitive activity, you begin by training and equipping. Simply because you've gotten a character to level 80 does not mean that character is ready to raid. You've probably done non-heroic dungeons as you leveled up. If you haven't done so already, now it is time to take on heroic dungeon content. The optimum situation is to have a balanced group that enjoys doing dungeons together on a regular basis. If your group is new to heroics, start with the lower level dungeons. In order by rank of difficulty the dungeons are: Utgarde Keep and The Nexus, Azjol-Nerub, Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom, Drak'Tharon Keep, Violet Hold, Gundrak and Halls of Stone.

The level 80 dungeons are: the Caverns of Time, Halls of Lightning, the Occulus and Utgarde Pinnacle. Get equipped in the lower level dungeons and work your way to the top dungeons, bettering you equipment along the way. Check out the Armory on the World of Warcraft site to see where needed upgrades are to be found. Many excellent pieces can even be crafted.

Heroic dungeons also drop Emblems of Heroism, which can be used to buy some very nice equipment. You will definitely want to work on your reputation standings with the various Northrend factions. The Sons of Hodir sell shoulder enchants, with the best enchants only available at exalted. Depending on your class, you will want to level up your reputation with the faction that sells the best head enchant for your spec. All of the factions sell nice pieces of gear as you rise in reputation. Don't overlook faction purchases as you gear up.

The Looking for Group channel has gotten a bad rap and certainly we've all experienced Pick-up-Groups from hell. Still, I've had some excellent PUGs. If you don't have a regular group to instance with, consider trying the Looking for Group channel in the game. Just be sure to aim for dungeons appropriate for your experience and equipment level.

Naxxaramas 10-man is the next step up from level 80 heroic dungeons. Sites like WoW-heroes.com or Be Imba can give you an idea of how well geared you are versus the requirements of the instance. Goals to aim for to raid 10-man Naxx, depending on your spec, are 1600 DPS (there are target dummies in capital cities to practice on); 1500 Spell Power, unbuffed; 540 defense (or uncritable) and 15-16% dodge or parry.

Once you're geared, if your guild has regular groups running Naxxaramas 10-man, let them know you're interested in joining the fun. There are usually Naxx groups forming up in trade, so check there if Naxx raids are not available through your guild. Don't try to jump in before you are ready, however. There's a reason these groups advertise "gear check." No one wants to bring an under-geared and inexperienced player who is likely to slow down or even wipe the raid. Wipes are part of raiding, but bringing more than one or two under-geared and inexperienced players can turn an evening from fun to a tedious mess.

Preparation is key to raiding success and it can be expensive. Don't show up for a raid with equipment that is lacking in enchants or isn't gemmed properly. Do your homework. Talk to people in your class whose abilities you admire. What sites do they turn to for advice on gems, enchants, glyphs and equipment? Look for advice on Best in Slot for pre-Naxx to help you prepare to raid 10-man Naxxaramas.

Check out forums and blogs specific to your class, many will have a list of desirable pre-Naxx armor and weapons and add-ons that can enhance your performance in a raid setting. Some recommended sites are: Tank Spot and Max DPS; great sites for information on tanking and damage dealing respectively. Plus Heal and World of Matticus have a wealth of information for the healing classes. For specific classes, deathknight.info is good for DKs, Maintankadin is excellent for the prot pally. Thedailydruid.com for guess who. Shadowpriest.com is for the priest who walks on the dark side. Rogues will want to look at shadowpanther.net. A recommended shaman blogger is to be found at www.shieldsup.ch and Petopia is the place for information on hunter pets. There are many excellent sites. Ask around. These are a few recommended by my friends.

Among the best places to look for information for all classes are the Elitist Jerks forums. There one will find intelligent discussion of the various classes and specs with lots of theorycrafting. They have information on gear, mods, strategies, enchants, gems, glyphs and more. When I asked for recommendations on good sites, this one was mentioned as great for almost all classes and specs.

Raiding isn't cheap. If you want to be a valued part of the team and get invited back, you should come fully prepared. You will need to gather and prepare stat food or buy it on the Auction House. You will need the proper alchemy flasks or elixirs. You will need money to pay for repairs, particularly if your group is taking on new content. Plan on farming goods to sell or doing daily quests on a regular basis to have the gold for raid preparation and repair. Remember, each new upgrade will require a new round of enchants and gems.

Now that you have adequate armor and consumables, you must have the proper addons for raiding. A threat meter, like Omen and Deadly Boss Mods or Big Wigs for encounter information are common mods used by many guilds. Ventrillo is a freeware program worth having. Most raiding guilds and many individuals will have Ventrillo channels that can be used to provide voice communication. While there is a voice communication system built into the game, it is marginally useful and I have never seen it utilized for raiding. While Ventrillo is the voice communication program of choice on my server, TeamSpeak is a similar program that may enjoy greater popularity on other servers.

Finally, know the encounter. Boss Killers or MMO Champion can provide strategy guides for most of the encounters in the game. Tankspot.com has many excellent videos of boss fights. Come prepared by studying the encounters for the raid instance you want to take on. Also, know what upgrades drop for your class there. Rolling for loot goes by quickly, so have an idea of the desirable loot each boss kill might drop so you won't hesitate to recognize an upgrade.

If you want to raid, expect to put in hours of time outside of raiding to repair, upgrade and replenish. Raiding is an expensive undertaking. It is also one of the most exciting and enjoyable aspects of World of Warcraft. If you have the time to prepare, it is well worth the effort.