battle posts

It doesn't matter what MMO you play -- you'd had to have been hiding under a rock to not know that the largest MMO PvP battle ever recorded recently took place in EVE Online. For those of us who call New Eden home, the closest many got to the action was pulling up the map, hitting alerts, and marveling at the enormous red blob over LXQ2-T. Thankfully, one thoughtful pilot named riverini captured screenshots of the enormous masses of ships to share with us here on One Shots! I'd note that I am also breaking slightly with format: Not only am I posting all of the images in one post, but you'll find the full-size images linked after the break. With that said, here's rivertini's note: "[Here are] some shots from the epic pew pew that happened in the LXQ2-T; our FC ordered us to align in preparation for the Russian counter assault. The Northern Coalition and the Red Noise Coalition (Russian bloc) tested their prowess in the mother of all space battles."

Captured a picture of something epic in your home MMO? In the mood to brag about your accomplishments? Send your screenshots in to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it in to us!

Tweet While many of us haven't actively taken part in EVE Online's territorial warfare, news routinely surfaces of the massive alliance wars that take place in the game's lawless nullsec regions. As the number of players subscribed to EVE increases, so too does the size of the average nullsec fleet. Since there's no disadvantage to bringing additional pilots, each side in a heated war will try to bring as many people as it can physically get to attend. At a certain point, however, the server hardware strains under the weight of hundreds or thousands of players, and lag sets in. The point at which this happens has been rising over the years as CCP performs server upgrades, with previous expansions seeing fights as large as 500-1000 per side with quite manageable lag.

A landmark battle is currently raging in the system of LXQ2-T, with thousands of pilots fighting for control of the system. The number of players in the system peaked at over 3,110 pilots, with alliances from the Northern Coalition political conglomeration facing off against the Russian power block from the drone regions. Lag began to set in at around the 2,400-player mark, with pilots facing several-minute delays on warp commands and module activations. Several pilots have launched live video streams of the event, though much of the action has ceased for the moment as the server begins to recover from a severe clash with the lag monster.

Soul Master has been in open beta for almost a week now, and the latest trailer gives us a more extensive view of battle than we've had before, while hinting at some exciting options for alliances.

The game is designed to be an action-oriented MMORTS, and while there's certain to be an emphasis on strategy and planning, the gameplay we see in the trailer looks to be pretty fast-paced. There is talk of never fighting alone, units rushing to you in battle, and deadly attacks -- the blending of RTS and action seems to be coming along nicely.

Follow along after the jump for the latest look at Soul Master.

One of the weaknesses that players have always associated with Final Fantasy XI is the nature of combat within the game. Not that any fan will avoid telling you how fun it is -- but even the most ardent defender can't avoid pointing out that it does tend to be a bit slow. The actual battles run slower, abilities take longer to recharge, and the process of getting into the combat takes a great deal longer than it does in other games. You can't just jump into the game and expect to be off and fighting within a few minutes.

At least, that was the case before the June Version Update. Three of the biggest additions to the game were designed to take that notion and throw it out the window, not only encouraging players to jump into violence but outright pushing you toward faster and more active combat. We had a chance to take a walk through the game's additions, and they were everything that was promised and more, enough to make any Final Fantasy XI player very happy indeed with the changing face of the endgame.

We're just coming off of a holiday weekend here in the US, and Japan had their own recent stretch of holidays, so news on Final Fantasy XIV has been a little bit slower of late. But a recent group of interviews in the June 11th issue of Dengeki have been translated thanks to the team over at FFXIVCore, and they cover topics from materials of armor to the game's not-always-praised battle system. The first part of the interview talks testing and systems with Hiromichi Tanaka and Nobuai Komoto, while the second part discusses visuals and worldbuilding with planner Kenichi Iwao.

Tanaka and Komoto confirm that the next phase of testing is set to begin soon, as well as dropping the news that the next test will likely feature an almost totally redesigned battle system. It's even hinted that players were never meant to experience the current system, that it was there almost as a placeholder. By contrast, Iwao discusses the lore and visual aspects of the game, talking about how items will be made from different materials, and how players who want to play a male Mito'qe shouldn't give up hope just yet. All Final Fantasy XIV fans are encouraged to read both interviews, since there's a lot of information available in both -- just the thing for the post-holiday doldrums.

So what exactly makes Global Agenda cross the border from persistent FPS to full on MMO? Conquest, my friends! Conquest. And now that the NDA has been lifted, we're free to tell you all about this agency only mode.

Global Agenda: Conquest mode is the game's take on a real-time strategy game versus an FPS. Your alliance of agencies can take ownership of the Global Agenda world and lay claim to valuable resources to build agent modifications, weapons of mass destruction, and even more fun little tools. But you must guard your territory carefully, as other alliances will have the option to siege your land, forcing you into battles for domination of the map.

But how does Conquest mode work? What do you need to do to take advantage of this feature of the spy-fi shooter? Glad you asked! It's time for you to FAQ That!

The keep, the keep!

"Fall back to the keep! Fall back to the keep!" called General Zodd Drow over Ventrilo. The outer walls were abandoned as everyone began rushing back to the keep to make a stand. While this would normally sound like suicide, as we'd leave our citystone undefended, we had placed the keep perfectly next to the stone. From there, people on the roof of the keep could easily fire downwards and destroy anyone who would come close to the stone, while the stairs inside served as the world's best choke point. Think 300, only with less spartans, more lolz, and inside of a keep.

From there our most armored men began to hold the steps while I stayed up top, picking off people's mounts and keeping casters at bay with my bow. We had an impressive grouping of archers and spellcasters, all doing their part to keep people below at bay or injured as they entered the keep.

Meanwhile, in the keep, the enemy losses accelerated while our losses dropped. Fighting was packed into close quarters with shields and one-handed weaponry becoming the focus. I peeked my head down to see what was going on and only found chaos. Attempting to shoot a bow in all of that was more dangerous than good, so I found myself back up top firing downwards.

Then, oddly, people began spilling out. Enemies began to retreat, firing one last wave of spells as they left. Our forces ran out after them, chasing for the moment as they left our city. Everyone relaxed on Ventrilo, happy over our win for the time being.

The second assault -- not as interesting as the first

Sinister relayed a message to us -- "We don't like to retreat." I'd feel that way too if I had just gotten halted inside of a keep and I was paid lots of money by a clan to make sure they won the battle. Plus then there's that whole reputation thing... eh... yeah, I'd be angry.

Half an hour later, they came again. There was one hour left in the battle as they came up the hill, and we were better prepared for what they had to offer this time. We also had a plan -- do the same thing we did before, but now in complete unison instead of panic.

They rounded the walls and started in on the wall towers, but we held faster this time around than last time. The force seemed smaller to me, but I couldn't truly tell with all of the insanity going on. When the walls looked too overrun, we moved back inside the keep again, doing what we did before. It worked a second time, and perhaps even better than the first. The attackers backed out of the keep, fearing a repeat, and began to stick to the towers.

That was, until, our forces rushed the towers. It was a bit silly to watch from my archery perch above. Three of our people ran in, then 10 of theirs would all rush out the other side. I filed it under, "things that made me laugh and shake my head."

Soon enough, they were driven back for the second time. It was at this point that our generals got word from Sinister that they wished to thank us for the challenge and the fun battle. The other clans stayed silent, for the time being. There was still 45 minutes left in the challenge, and we still remained prepared.

Finally, the clock slowly rode down. Our guards began to loosen up and joke -- more talking over Ventrilo and silly conversation. Then, as the clock hit zero and the game displayed "DRAW" in huge letters on our screens, everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. Air guitars were played (you can type /air_guitar to make your avatar play the electric guitar, yay anachronism) and congratulations were swapped over Ventrilo. The siege was done.

One final look back

I sat atop the keep for a while more as everyone disappeared, talking with some of the others about writing this up as a final feature for Massively on my time in Darkfall. I was trying to get a handle on the whole moment, as it came so unexpectedly, and I was still trying to decide if I liked it or not. The siege felt like a giant game of deathmatch, not really a siege. It felt uneven at times, as when I got caught in a fire AoE I almost died via that one spell. It felt fun, of course, as everyone dodged around and was being assaulted on all sides. There wasn't any lag or hangups, save for a few spikes here and there.

The game performed to expectations regarding performance, but I'm just not sure how I felt. I didn't stand up and cheer, I didn't feel awe struck. I felt successful, but I didn't feel like a winner. It's hard to explain, so I don't think I will attempt it.

I will simply leave the question, "Is it fun?" to you, the readers, as I have in the last column. It's not my place to tell you what you enjoy, and I don't think I'm about to start now. As for me... I owe Kend Drow some warbanding, so if you see Seraphina Azureveil, have the decency to wave before shooting an arrow through my heart.

Update: Apparently, Scarce Xrul has uploaded parts of the siege in his YouTube video, convincing his friends to join Darkfall. You want to watch exactly what happened? Well, now you can, and in HD!

The second hamlet: Wherein we learn that fire is hot

We rode onwards to our next target when suddenly a fireball roared towards Wardragon, barely missing him. The next hamlet had already seen us, and a fire mage was casting spells from atop the main keep. We rode onwards, splitting up our formation to avoid the incoming fire (literally.)

Once again, we quickly cleared the hamlet of everyone, except the fire mage, and three of our men started to clean out their quarry and their farm. The other three of us played an annoying game of cat and mouse with the fire mage who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, keeping his interest while we cleaned them out and put their stuff into the bank.

Once again successful, we jumped on our mounts and rode towards the sea. The last hamlet was on an island out from the mainland, so we reached the beach and jumped off of our mounts to swim across. It was here that our trailing 6th man reported that he was being followed by the people from the last hamlet. They were apparently angry, and concerned about the security of their shit.

Wardragon noticed a smaller, desolate island on the map that was close to us, and we used that ground to make our stand. Initially we had counted 6 men in the force... then that was 8 men... then it was 12 men. Arrows were being flung from all sides as we darted between broken buildings. I peeked out from around a corner only to catch a sword to my chest from... Pluto Nash?

Hamlets one and two had teamed up to end our reign of theft and tyrrany -- combining their forces to out-man ours. I danced around on the beach for a while with Pluto, who was now wearing a very nice sword and a full set of banded armor, jumping and parrying his blows while I asked for help over Ventrilo. Wardragon came to my aid, but it was too late. With one last slash I fell over onto the ground while Wardragon picked up where I left off.

The end of an era

While I lay on the ground, coughing up blood, I thought back on all of the things I had seen and done in Darkfall. All of the harvesting, and then more of the harvesting, and then all of that time grinding PvE mobs, then more harvesting, then killing newbies, then more harvesting, then admiring my city, then AFKing on the bloodwall, AFKing on the bloodwall, AFKing on the bloodwall...

Dying here was actually more fun than most of the things I had done in Darkfall. There was more action in one 30 minute stretch than my entire playing experience, and I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that. Plus, as I lay there dying, I was about to lose most of the work that I had done during those long stretches of playtime.

Darkfall is an interesting game that varies between an intense grind and a game of cat and mouse. It is competitive and brutal in its nature, where only those with large amounts of time or a willingness to cheat the system prevail. On the flip side, however, when it all comes down to a battle or a clash of forces, Darkfall gets to be quite fun. I guess what remains is a very Machiavellian question -- "Do the ends justify the means?" Is it fun if the culmination of hours of tedious gameplay is an extremely fun sequence?

Dear readers, I'm not touching that question with a 30 foot pole. As for that battle, I'm sure you're wondering about the outcome. Did Wardragon and his men win the battle? Or did they die horribly like I did? Well, I don't know much about that, but I can say that I love my new set of banded armor. My compliments to the designer -- Mr. Pluto Nash.

Yes, now you too can take on all of the Chinese speaking players of a single game as one great nation of English speaking players. Except, of course, until the barrage of lolcats quotes and internet memes in the global faction channel drive you out of your mind.

Either way, Galaxy Online, igg.com's massively multiplayer free-to-play sci-fi RTS, will be opening up a brand new server that has the sole responsibility of housing a battle between the Chinese version and the English version of their game. The winning faction will recieve all of the spoils, which have yet to be announced but are promised to be a pretty decent prize. Oh, and the winners will also get the bragging rights, of course.

The battle is open to anyone interested, and the call will soon be put out on the Galaxy Online forums.

Imagine booting up your computer to play your favorite online game with your friend, except he's in an airport waiting for a flight and you're at home in your office chair. You see a glorious 3-D world from the comfort of your computer monitor, and he sees a two dimensional isometric view from his hunched view over his mobile phone. You use your mouse to click your action buttons and fight monsters, and he just taps the screen with his finger. You're questing together, winning battles together, except you see the world entirely in 3-D and he's seeing it in 2-D.

If you're thinking that this scenario is entirely implausible, you would be wrong. MMO tools developer Multiverse has recently unveiled a sneak peek at their upcoming flash toolset by launching the flash based game Multiverse Battle.

Ah, the glorious sweetness of victory - so wonderful when it is ours; so bitter when it is not. Today's Warhammer Online One Shots breaks our normal guideline for screenshots without UI, but we feel in this case it fits the frenetic battle framed in all that busy information well. That, and we're down to only a few reader-submitted screenshots, so if you've been thinking about sending some screens in, now is an excellent time! This screen comes to us from Doula Doom, who is from the Knights of Terror. Doula writes in and sets the scene for us: Here we are defending a keep from the sickly sweet goodness that are Order forces. There were at least 60 players in attendance (at least 40 on order and 20 on Destruction), and Order eventually overcame our defence and took the keep.

We know there are oodles of you out there reading, and we're betting that at least some of you are playing/have played MMOs - otherwise, why would you be here, eh? One Shots needs your screens, dear readers! So while you're out playing, or digging through your hard drive, grab some screenshots for us. Send them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, server, and a brief description of what's in the screenshot. (Please, turn your UI off if possible.) In turn we'll give your screenshot and note to us a moment to shine, right here on Massively. How cool is that?

When talk of how Faction Warfare was going to work began, the goals it hoped to achieve were laid bare for all to see. EVE Online developers CCP wanted to encourage small-scale PvP combat and make the experience easy for even new players to get involved in. Now that Faction Warfare has been live for several days, the dust is beginning to settle and the question of whether or not those goals have been achieved can be examined. In this article, I will examine faction warfare based on my experiences of it since launch.

The early days:
The first two days of the Empyrean Age saw a flood of news posts and some in-game events, carrying on with the momentum generated by the trailers and build-up news stories. Early reports showed that the Caldari militia organised itself well to begin with, leading fleets of over 100 ships. Since then, comparable fleets have been organised by the Gallente and Minmatar militias, with multiple gangs of over 80 ships being a daily occurrence. The Caldari faction retains its size advantage for now but statistics show that the Gallente militia is the most deadly, having over twice the number of confirmed kills per pilot. Epic fleet battles and tactical manoeuvres that were once the sole domain of 0.0 alliance warfare now rage across EVE in the border zones between faction territories.

Read on as I discuss the state of faction warfare and examine whether or not the goals announced earlier have been met.

The upcoming release of Age of Conan has brought this question farther into the light, with its foray into real-time battle. Sure, there have been others -- the late, not-so-lamented Fury being a great example -- that have tried to redefine what MMO combat can be like, but many games are content to offer the tried-and-true click to attack model, with slight variations.

When it comes to fighting in games, surely the biggest defining factor is, or should be, "Is it exciting?" Given that singular criterion, then, which game has the best combat? Which one gets your blood racing? Which MMO really lets you, as the kids used to say, throw down?