Earthrise fans will still have a bit of a wait ahead of them in terms of getting into open beta, but development and improvements are ongoing through the current closed beta. Masthead Studios CEO Atanas Atanasov was recently interviewed by MMORPG.com’s Garrett Fuller, updating Earthrise fans on the game’s current status and details of some of the game mechanics of skills and tactics. Noteworthy — Atanasov discusses why Masthead Studios chose to develop a sandbox MMO and foster a player-driven setting, rather than a more typical game where players move quickly through the content and then wait for the next expansion to release.

“The sense of involvement and power to create and change can invigorate and keep players glued to the game for years to come,” says Atanasov. On that topic of sandboxes, the interview also discusses how MMO titles like Ultima Online and EVE Online have been part of the inspiration for Earthrise.

Atanasov also explains some of the challenges of open PvP game design, how he envisions player guilds forming, and the game’s reworked combat system. And about that open beta or a release date? Atanasov tells MMORPG.com, “We don’t want to rush Earthrise to the market so we are working hard to deliver a game that players will enjoy for years to come.”

Player vs Player (PvP)

There are no battlegrounds in Aion (e.g., Alterac Valley). Instead, the PvP is more “open-world” so to speak. The biggest PvP zone is called the Abyss. Players can only enter the Abyss from levels 25-50. Contained in the Abyss are the best XP opportunities, PvE rewards, PvP rewards, instances, and fortress raids. Think of the Abyss as a giant (and we mean giant) contested zone from a WoW PvP server. PvP is highly encouraged in Aion and it is difficult to avoid it once you reach level 25.

You gain Abyss Points (AP) by killing enemy players and Balaur NPCs in the Abyss (and lose it when you die). AP is kind of like honor from back when WoW first launched. AP gives you special PvP ranks and you can spend it like currency to buy various specialty items and abilities.

Two other forms of PvP in Aion include Rifts and the Arena. Rifts are portals that take you to your enemy’s PvE lands. Quests still start sending you through Rifts in your mid-20s. The capital cities also contain Arenas where you can participate in giant free-for-alls against your allies. Basically, it’s a way to practice PvP risk-free.

Graphics/performance

Aion uses Crytek’s CryEngine rendering software. This engine is highly scalable and looks absolutely brilliant on high-end machines and pretty good on low-end ones. Comparatively, the graphics in Aion seem smoother and more detailed, however, it’s really up to your personal taste. As for performance, the game runs about as well as WoW on most machines.

Polish

Polish can mean a lot of things, so we’re going to generalize by saying it means “things work as intended.” Like WoW, Aion is a very polished game. WoW wasn’t perfect at launchand Aion won’t be either. That said, both games display high attention to detail and most things work as intended.

Aion’s European and North American release benefits from having been in Korea for almost a year. We’re playing a game in which all the major flaws have been already fixed.

Crafting

Crafting is fairly deep in Aion and similar to WoW. It really shines in its contribution to the game’s player-driven economy. Players can learn:
Cooking (food and purification) Handicrafting (accessories, wooden weapons, and small parts) Weapon Smithing (metal weapons) Armor Smithing (metal armor) Sewing (cloth and leather armor) Alchemy (potions, magical weapons, and items that can upgrade gear) There are gathering nodes all over Atreia for players to collect. You can learn all the gathering and crafting skills but only master one. Players level up their crafting mostly through work orders, which are kind of like quests for your trade skills.

Economy/market

Trade brokers and personal stores: These are the two key forces behind the game’s economy. The trade broker is like WoW’s auction house. Personal stores are a bit different.

Players can set up their a personal store in areas of high traffic and sell just about anything. They can set their own prices, add a store description, and basically go AFK and let the items sell themselves. Alternatively, they can actively participate in trade chat. Aion’s currency is kinah. There is no plat, gold, silver, or copper. A kinah is a kinah, plain and simple.

Achievements/titles

Aion’s achievements are tied to titles. For example, do all the quests in Poeta and earn the title Poeta’s Protector. Titles grant special bonuses such as stat buffs and appear beside your character’s name. There are dozens upon dozens to collect.

Flight/gliding

Every class in Aion can fly at level 10+, not like WoW where you need to be a Druid or have a special mount. These wings can be used to glide anywhere in the world and even fly in certain areas.

Flight can be hard to master, but flying is necessary in the game for a number of reasons. Some content is only accessible by flying and much of the PvP you’ll engage in will take place on land and in the skies. You can’t fly in some of the PvE zones but the entire Abyss is a fly-zone.

Solo vs. group friendliness

The earlier levels in Aion are quite manageable for a solo person. Going solo is possible throughout the mid-levels as well, but it becomes much less efficient. Even though many new quests were added in a recent patch, we are hearing reports that there still aren’t enough to get you through an entire level at times. That means you will resort to either solo grinding or group grinding.

Playing in the Abyss and rifting into your enemy’s PvE lands carries more risk to the solo player. Aside from the risk, there’s only so much you can accomplish while solo in the Abyss from a raiding perspective. The high level instances and fortresses require a group to really get anything accomplished.

Blizzard asked for real-life stories from players a little while ago, and now they’ve posted a pretty big collection of them over on the official site (this page was around last year, but they’ve added many stories since then). As Bornakk says, these are personal accounts from players of how playing the game with others has helped them grow relationships in real-life. I’m not sure what exactly the point of posting these is (maybe Blizzard wants to stave off some of that negative media reporting about the game and addiction to it), but then again, if you dive into a few of these, you can see that they don’t really need a point — they’re really interesting (and in some cases pretty heartwarming) stories about how players are using this game to enrich real-life relationships.

They’re still accepting more stories as well, so if you’ve got a good tale of some WoW-sharing in real-life, hit them up over on the submission page and put yours in the mix. Hopefully Blizzard will figure out a way to get these out into the real world — harsh stories about addiction are so easy for the media to jump on, but great stories like these are the real reasons we all play this game.

Despite his sometimes-crass way of getting his point across, Ming is one of the best PvP bloggers around these days. When the Patch 3.2 patch notes revealed the upcoming change to resilience, I was hoping to hear his take on it. He delivered! If you haven’t seen the patch notes, Resilience in Patch 3.2 will lower incoming damage across the board in addition to its protection against critical strikes. By Ming’s estimates, after all other factors have been taken into consideration, the change will bring a net difference of an added 10% damage reduction in the upcoming Season 7.

That number probably doesn’t seem like a lot to people who don’t set foot into the arena at all, but for people who arena seriously and competitively, it will be a game changer. The developers’ stated goal is to slow down the pace of the arena, and this change will do exactly that. An extra 10% buffer on survivability has the potential to absolutely be the difference between a one minute game and a five minute game. It has the potential to be the difference between a gib and a last second defensive save. As has been stated, it’s possible to die in the span of one GCD, and that’s not fun. If this change can extend one GCD to two or three GCDs to allow for reaction time, the arena just might end up more balanced than it has ever previously been, unless you pretend Mace Stun didn’t exist in the middle seasons of The Burning Crusade.

You really shouldn’t take my word for it, though. I PvP, but I’d never claim to be a highly rated anything. There’s a reason I was waiting for Ming’s take on it. Go read what he has to say, and be bolstered by it. The arena might actually be truly fun again.

Brilliant. Just brilliant. If you’ve been keeping up with the many changes in Patch 3.2, you might get an inkling that PvP is going to change drastically and for the better. Adam has already gone through the whopper announcement that Blizzard hinted at some time back: players can now gain experience from the Battlegrounds. It’s something I’d wished for since the days of vanilla WoW and the developers have finally gotten around to implementing it in the next major patch.

Does this mean the death of twinks? Not necessarily. Players can opt to toggle experience gains on and off by going to Behsten in Orgrimmar or Slahtz in Stormwind (best-in-slot, get it?) and ponying up 10 Gold. But wait, there’s more! Players who turn off experience gains will only be placed in the same Battleground queues as other players who opt not to gain experience. That’s right — twinks will be facing off against twinks. Twinks who have always contended that it wasn’t about the unfair gear advantage will finally get the opportunity to test their mettle against equally geared opponents. Enjoy.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though. After the jump, we’ll take a look at a whole bunch of changes that will impact World of Warcraft PvP from the obvious (Arena and Battleground changes) to the not-so-obvious (item and ability changes). Let’s hit it.

Arenas
2v2 is officially dead. Alright, it’s technically not dead, but Blizzard took it to some back alley and beat it to an unrecognizable pulp. This little line in the patch notes dealt the beating all by its lonesome: “The newest season of Arena gear can only be purchased if you meet the requirements with your 3 or 5 player team rating.” This means that players who want to gear up in the best PvP gear must participate in 3s and 5s. It’s an artificial way of boosting participation in the bigger brackets, but it’s guaranteed to work.

Ratings obtained in 2v2 is usable to purchase the previous season’s gear, however. But given that points gain is lower and queues for the bigger brackets will improve… it’s simply better to get at least one more person and play in the 3s. Farewell, poor 2v2, we hardly knew you.

Blizzard also changed the Dalaran Sewers map, increasing its size by 25% and allowing the use of mounts. The horrid crates on the corners of the raised platform which create nightmarish Line-of-Sight problems were also modified both in position and collision. The size increase gives ranged classes more breadth to move around and not as easily get trained by, say, a cleave team. The Ruins of Lordaeron have also been revised somewhat, with the alcoves in the starting chambers removed. I have no idea what that means. What they should really do is have players get shunted out of the rooms and close the doors, similar to the sewer pipes in Dalaran arena. Blizzard has also made the tombstone easier to move around, which should make Line-of-Sight less problematic.

Strangely, there’s nothing in the patch notes about the Ring of Valor, which has numerous issues — I’ve lost matches by being trapped in the bottom of the elevator as it rises — and is generally abhorred by most Arena players. By most I mean anyone not playing a Hunter. Hunters just hop onto the pillar and pewpew things.

Battlegrounds
While the biggest news about the Battlegrounds is the long-awaited experience gains, Blizzard made a few other changes, too. For one thing, they’re now removing Battlegrounds-specific NPCs in major cities, replacing them with a generic Battlemaster whom players can talk to and queue up for any Battleground. It’s a cosmetic change and I totally called it wrong when I said that the Isle of Conquest will have new NPCs all over the place. It makes a lot more sense, actually, since if Blizzard adds more Battlegrounds, the war rooms will simply get more and more crowded and confusing.

So say goodbye to NPCs like Adam Eternum and Keldor the Lost, who will now only be seen during their particular Battleground Holiday (in this case, Arathi Basin). It’s only natural that some things will fall by the wayside in this pruning and streamlining process — after all, these NPCs became obsolete after Patch 3.1, when players gained the ability to queue from anywhere in the game. This means I’ll need to make that trip to Shattrath with some flowers and send off Yula the Fair, who will only visit once every six weeks now.

In the meantime, as those NPCs take extended vacations, Battleground matches themselves will be much, much quicker paced now. Warsong Gulch now has a 20-minute timer, which means the game can actually end in a tie (which happens with some Battlegrounds). Expect more players to participate in this fast-paced map more with the changes.

Other Battlegrounds have been sped up, too, with the resources needed to win in Arathi Basin and Eye of Storm reduced to a mere 1600, down from 2000. It also only takes 8 seconds to take flags in either map as opposed to 10. As Blizzard aimed to balance the length of all Battleground playing times, most matches will last around 20 minutes. That’s just freaking awesome. Casual players who have little time to play can gain a lot from playing a few Battleground matches.

Finally, Blizzard has implemented a buff called Honorable Defender, which gives players 50% more Honor when killing enemy players within the vicinity of a Battleground objective in Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, and Isle of Conquest. Take that, road fighters! Players will no longer exasperatingly implore mindless combatants to “fight on the flag.” It’s simply more rewarding to do the right thing.

Little things
While those are the PvP-specific changes, there are plenty of changes across the board that should affect PvP in general. One big one? The mount change that lowers the casting time of land mounts to 1.5 seconds from 3. That’s the span of one GCD. This means players can flee or pursue opponents much quicker or get to a particular point in the map in less time. The availability of mounts at an earlier level will also make Battlegrounds a more enjoyable experience for leveling players, particularly in maps such as Arathi Basin.

The class changes will affect PvP, too, but that’s an entirely different story altogether. One key point, however, is that pets will scale better with their masters in many aspects. In particular, pets gain 40% of their masters’ Resilience, making them much more, uh… resilient targets in PvP. Many changes have been implemented in the past few patches that raised the survivability of pets, and imparted Resilience has been one of the most requested changes since the stat was introduced in The Burning Crusade.

Oh, and did you read about the return of faction-specific armor sets? Sure it’s from the PvE Argent Tournament, but I’ll be darned if that isn’t one of the coolest things about Patch 3.2. Maybe we’ll see faction-specific PvP gear again, too. You know, just putting that out there.

Vaneras has just released the details for the Isle of Conquest, the new battleground that will be appearing in Patch 3.2, Call of the Crusade.

You can read the complete details over on the official forums or check ‘em out after the break. There are some key things that everyone should be aware of:

IoC will be a 40-man battleground. Yes, you read that right. This is the first 40-man content released since Naxx 1.0. That is going to make some old school players very, very happy. I know I’m already giddy with excitement.
There will be significant use of siege and vehicle combat. This includes going on The Airship Hanger and using parachutes to drop teams onto the enemy keep from above.
You will need to kill a general held up in the enemy keep, much like Alterac Valley.
Reinforcements will be used. Capture resources to boost your strength.
This looks like an amazing new battleground, and one that I’m sure many of us cannot wait to try out on the PTR. There has been a ton of new information about Patch 3.2 released in the last few days, so it looks like PTR might be soonish. Keep your fingers crossed.

The complete statement on the new Isle of Conquest after the break!
An island somewhere off the shores of Northrend. A rock, hardly worth a second look. But as insignificant as it may seem, this is no ordinary place. A sound of thunder as waves crash endlessly against rocky cliffs; a sound of fury as swords clash on the blood-stained fields of this island on the edge of forever.

Welcome to the Isle of Conquest.

The ongoing struggle between Horde and Alliance has turned many once peaceful (and some not-so peaceful) places into theaters of constant war. The Isle of Conquest is the latest such place, set to be the location of a battle of epic proportions over the island’s precious resources.

An Alliance and a Horde general are fighting for dominance, overseeing the action from the safety of their keeps. Whichever side manages to eliminate the enemy general first will triumph on the island; failure to protect your leader will bring shame, dishonor, and defeat. There is no peace accord here, and it’s an all-out war between the factions.

Once More into the breach…

Isle of Conquest, a new battleground scheduled to make its debut in the upcoming content patch, Call of the Crusade, will pitch teams of up to 40 players against each other in a massive battle over this small island off Northrend’s northern coast. To win, your team will need to make use of the island’s unique strategic locations including an oil derrick, a siege workshop, and a fully equipped airship hangar. You will deploy devastating siege weaponry on the field; Light have mercy on anyone caught between you and your ultimate target, the general holed up in the enemy keep.

There are five points of interest on the Isle of Conquest for the factions to battle over. Each one offers its own benefits and strategic value. Which one will you claim for your side, and will it be enough to ensure victory?

Capture Locations

Consider your options before storming out of your keep to confront the enemy head-on. Spread throughout the Isle of Conquest are several capturable locations (as seen on the map), each granting a unique strategic advantage to your team.

The Oil Derrick: Located on the northwestern end of the island, this smudge in the Frozen Sea produces enough black gold to run a thousand siege engines. Taking this resource garners precious reinforcements and a continuous flow of honor to the side that controls it.

The Cobalt Mine: This snow-covered assembly, located on the southeastern end of the island, hides untapped supplies that must be harvested. Taking this resource grants reinforcements and a continuous flow of honor to the side that controls it.

The Docks: The western shore’s docks will further expand your selection of siege weapons with the devastating new Glaive Thrower and the Catapult. Unleash the destruction of the Glaive Thrower upon the walls of the keep, or launch your invading party over the walls to assault the keep from within.

The Airship Hangar: This sturdy steel structure stands on the peak of Mt. Conquest overlooking the eastern side of the island, allowing players to board the airship docked there. This devastating weapon of war is capable of raining death upon the heads of your enemies and destroying enemy defenses. Once onboard the airship, players will find it comes equipped with parachutes enabling a strike team to drop into the enemy keep from above.

The Siege Workshop: Situated right between the Alliance base and the Horde base, this siege workshop occupies a strategic hot spot. Seizing it grants the controlling party the ability to utilize an arsenal of siege vehicles perfectly suited to reducing the enemy keep’s walls to dust and ashes.

Graveyards: There are five graveyards in the Isle of Conquest that are attached to different points of interest on the map: the Horde base, the Alliance base, an oil spill island in the center of the map (attached to the siege workshop), the northeast corner (attached to the airship hangar), and the southwest corner (attached to the docks).

Main Objectives

The Keeps: The Horde and Alliance keeps sit at opposite ends of the island. These citadels host four easily accessible defensive cannons set on the ramparts, capable of unleashing hot fury onto oncoming attackers. Additional explosives sit safely stowed in the base of the keep along the back wall. At least, they’re safe as long as they don’t fall into enemy hands. If they do, though, they can be employed to bring the stone walls down from within.

The General: Holed up behind the keeps’ massive walls, the generals command their forces from a position of relative safety. Should the keep fall and the general be slain, the Isle of Conquest will fall to the victor.

Reinforcements: Isle of Conquest uses a reinforcements system similar to that of Alterac Valley. The clock is ticking and every individual counts. If too many of your comrades fall to the enemy the battle will end in defeat. Killing enemy players will reduce their reinforcements by one for each kill, Once your faction’s reinforcements reach their limit, so too does your bid for control of the island and the wealth of resources you’ve fought so hard over.

An island somewhere off the shores of Northrend. A rock, hardly worth a second look. A test of strength. A chance to prove your might, to crush your enemies, to make a difference, a chance for endless glory and conquest.

Will you seize it?

The dominance of Rogue/Mage/Priest continues as SK Gaming defeated eMazing Gaming’s faceroll Unholy/BM/Holy comp in the Major League Gaming Columbus Grand Finals 6-3 (best of 11 counting previous matchups). SK Gaming took home the $9,000 Grand Prize in the first leg of the MLG 2009 pro circuit, proving that the US still has a competitive RMP team. Europe’s RMP contingent, Ensidia, barely missed the Finals after dropping to eMG in the prior round.

Some of the teams didn’t do so well despite expectations, such as two-time MLG winners Fnatic, who were playing without their Warrior, Rhaegyn. Fnatic did rather poorly, playing a Rogue/Warlock/Shaman comp that simply couldn’t match up against the dominant RMPs or even eMG’s Death Knight/Hunter/Paladin. Evil Geniuses also played below par, but there really have to be teams that occupy the bottom of the standings. The good news is that teams collect points through all MLG legs to tally at the end of the season, so we might see some changes in the next MLG stops.

All the matches were streamed through three different sites via Octoshape, but the streams were choppy and often stalled more than it did in the first two days of the tournament. It came to the point where the matches were simply unwatchable, which is a shame because there were some pretty good games on the last day. The shoutcasters did an excellent job commentating on the matches but camerawork and the pace of the games were just too fast at times to appreciate. Arena Tournaments could benefit greatly from instant replays, slow motion, and camera angles beyond the third person view. Replays should be available on GotFrag soon.

As an unannounced change in this morning’s patch 3.1.1, Exorcism can no longer be used against players. The stated rationale for this change not being announced ahead of time was that they were “trying to get the tooltip changed at the same time to reduce confusion,” which doesn’t quite seem to hold water for me – wouldn’t it be less confusing to tell the players, and not leave them to find out for themselves the next time they tried to PvP? Anyway, that’s a relatively minor issue.

Recall that in patch 3.1, Exorcism was changed to be usable on all targets, and to automatically crit against demons and undead (before, it could only be used against demons and undead). Evidently Blizzard feels that it’s just too much burst damage for Ret pallies in PvP, especially given that it means they can start up their combos from range. Edit: Just to clarify, the functionality of Exorcism in PvE is unchanged.

Ghostcrawler also promises that they’re working on making Pally DPS “more interesting and also less bursty” instead of just using all your skills on cooldown, and that once they figure out how to do that, you’ll be able to Exorcise other players again. He gives Conflagrate, Brain Freeze, Rip, Overpower, and Arcane Blast as examples of the kind of more interesting mechanics they might be going for. He invites feedback on ways to make Pally DPS more reactive, so go make your thoughts known in the thread if you have any ideas.

It’s time to get Murkimus the Gladiator! The Arena Tournament has officially moved on to the second phase of the tournament, where all matches played will count towards the season rankings. The bloodshed began last February, kicking off a two-week testing phase where players could create fully geared Level 80 characters, test out comps and strategies, and generally get warmed up for the real deal.

Players interested in participating simply have to pony up $20 or £15 for a shot at winning prizes totalling $200,000. All ranked matches now count towards the qualifiers, and the players belonging to the Top 1000 teams will receive the title of ‘Vanquisher’ on all their characters Level 71 and above on the live realms. Players who don’t crack the upper echelons of Arena rankings can still get the lovable armored murloc pet by playing 200 matches. The matches must be played on the same character and with the same team charter.

Blizzard has also opened up Arena Tournament forums for US realms and EU realms, which players can use to recruit for teams, discuss strategies or ask for advice, and generally keep up-to-date on the latest goings-on in the Tournament Realms. Of course, if you want a good shot at winning, it might help to take some pointers from Korea’s H O N, who played RMP to a completely different level, taking home $30,000 at the recently concluded ESL Arena Tournament.

Registering for the tournament, which costs $20 or £15, will grant players access to the tournament realms where they can create Level 80 characters of any race and class. These characters will be outfitted with the best Arena gear available — Deadly Gladiator items from Season 5 — and will have access to other epic items as well as enchants, gems, and glyphs allowing them to customize their character as they see fit.

Players whose teams finish in the Top 1000 at the end of the qualifiers will receive the Vanquisher title for all their characters over Level 70. Casual players who don’t play Arenas seriously still have some incentive as the only requirement to obtain the Murloc pet — Murkimus the Gladiator, according to the Patch 3.1 files — is to play 200 games over the six-week qualifying period with one team regardless of record. Players must have an active subscription in order to register.