The latest game master blog at the Star Trek Online site deals with a host of issues that confront both GMs and players. This time, Destra discusses, among other stuff, griefing and restoring items. Check it out!

Griefing

How do we deal with griefing?

 

Players who are found griefing accrue account penalties in the same form they would if they were found harassing another player. However, it’s not always black and white. We look at a few factors to determine if someone is truly at fault.

 The latest EVE Online developer blog is a great treatise about upcoming changes in the works for the Tyrannis expansion to allow players to have interaction with -all- planets in game. Keep reading!

 

 

But before we get into that I would be remiss if I didn’t give a modicum of back story. Interacting with planets is something we’ve always wanted to do. We have even shown a rough prototype of planetary flight at the first FanFest. Well, a lot has changed since that first FanFest but our desire to explore these thousands of worlds has remained unwavering. The EVE universe is such a rich and interesting place it’s been a shame we haven’t been able to immerse ourselves deeper into it. Until today where we are

 Warhammer Online developers will be running another “Weekend Warfront” event from March 5-8, 2010. This time, the event will take place in the High Pass Cemetery. Grab the details below:

 

 

WAAAAGH!!!

Turbine has released the latest update to Lord of the Rings Online. Called “Oath of the Rangers”, the update adds more skirmishes and adds to the overarching plot with Allies of the King. Find out what else is new and check out several new screens

TURBINE RELEASES VOLUME III, BOOK 1: Oath of the Rangers

Next Major Update Goes Live for Subscribers of The Lord of the Rings Online

WESTWOOD, MA – March 1, 2010- Turbine, Inc. announced today the release the newest Volume in the epic story of The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ (LOTRO). Volume III: Allies of the King begins a new adventure for subscribers of LOTRO who can now experience Book 1: Oath of the Rangers, the latest of Turbine’s frequent and substantial updates to the award-winning MMORPG. Book 1 builds on the success of the critically acclaimed Skirmish system with the introduction of Duo Mode and four new 12-player Skirmishes, new high-level skills and recipes and the Spring Festival. Book 1: Oath of the Rangers is now available to subscribers of The Lord of the Rings Online.

“2009 was another outstanding year for LOTRO with Siege of Mirkwood earning us another game of the year award while driving solid growth in the population of Middle-earth,” said Aaron Campbell, Live Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online. “Today we continue our journey with the introduction of the third volume of our award-winning story and the addition of new epic battles as we expand our popular Skirmish system. There has never been a better time to play LOTRO!”

Turbine has released six new screenshots from the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online content addition, Oath of the Rangers. The screens come from a skirmish deep within the Mirkwood. Check ‘em out!

Turbine released a half dozen screenshots for the upcoming Volume III: Allies of the King, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers content update for The Lord of the Rings Online. In Book 1, the War continues to rage in the North and the story continues for players.

For more information about Book 1, head to the official Oath of the Rangers site.

EVE Online developers have posted a new blog related to recent complaints of fleet lag since the last update. First off, devs want players to know, “We hear you!”. Find out more below:

 

 

Following the release of the Dominion expansion we started to get reports from players about an increase in “fleet lag.” Before we go any further, I would like to assure everyone that a taskforce of developers has been working on this continuously, but tracking down the source has proven a very difficult task.

 

So, what is the problem?

“Lag” is an ambiguous term and can refer to many things. The graphics in the client might be slowing it down, the network might be congested or a host of other issues may be coming into play. We have spent a long time trying to reproduce the issue on the test servers as well as monitoring fights as they have been unfolding on Tranquility, where we have received help from the players in the form of testing and bug reports. You might see names like “CCP Atlas”, “CCP GingerDude” and “CCP Warlock” poking about in Local. Don’t be alarmed, we are simply monitoring the node, looking for glitches. There are senior software engineers spending their evenings and weekends on Tranquility monitoring and measuring since we have not been able to see issues when testing because the sheer number of people required to trigger the problems and the specific ‘usage pattern’ of the game systems in question are outside what can currently be tested in the lab (although this is something that is being worked on).

What we are looking at now specifically is the fact that the performance of the sol nodes (the computers in the clusters handling the solar systems) appears to be worse than before. Even though CPU across the cluster has not increased with the Dominion expansion, each reinforced node is no longer able to handle the same number of people fighting as gracefully as it did before.

Guild Battles

Eased the restrictions for participating in Guild Battles:

* Ladder Play
o Requires 2 guild members.
o A guild member must be the party leader, and at least one guild officer must be in the party.
o Henchmen are restricted to a maximum of 4.

* Daily Automated Tournaments
o Requires 2 guild members who have been in your guild for at least 7 days.
o A guild member must be the party leader, and at least one guild officer must be in the party.
o Henchmen are restricted to a maximum of 4.
o All party members must be registered with Tolkano.

EVE Online players are spoiled by a dedicated development team. The bunch charged with making *cues Godlike voice* AWESOME planets is no exception. Find out how it’s done! 

 

The scrum team responsible for the updated planet graphics in Dominion was Team Oli Dan. Here we will explain how the planets came into existence; but the team also redid the star field background, created sovereignty structures, fighter bombers, and factional ships.

We have several types of planets in EVE: Gas giants, Temperate (Earthlike), Barren, Ocean, Storm, Ice and Lava. In addition we have moons, which from a programmer’s perspective are also planets. A new type was added in Dominion, the mysterious Plasma planets.

In order to make an omelet you have to break some eggs

Height maps

Almost all the shaders use a height map at its base and this texture determines much of the surface features. It is generated by blending two textures together to get variations. The textures are grayscale and square, but they are combined with different scale and position. Our artists created different types of height maps for the different worlds we were creating. For instance, the Ice planet textures are very cracked and craggy, while the Temperate planet textures are based on height maps of Earth.

Guild Wars players are now participating in the annual Wintersday Festival. The festival comes complete with snowball fights, special rewards, new quests and more. Keep reading!

 

Can you feel that crisp chill in the air? It’s that time of year when the cities of Tyria shine like beacons with festive decor, and the gods Dwayna and Grenth fight over who will control the weather during the coming months. Holiday vendors sell seasonal treats, and the air is full of snowballs and the sound of laughter. Wintersday is almost here!

The towns of Lion’s Arch, Droknar’s Forge, Ascalon City, Kamadan, and the Eye of the North will be decked out in Wintersday decorations. Visitors to Lion’s Arch, Kamadan, and the Eye of the North will be invited to participate in holiday quests, missions, and games, all with their own rewards.