Welcome to the 1,047th Edition of Loading...

In this issue, we get our first look at Huxley gameplay and share some first impressions. Also, two Ten Ton Hammer exclusive interviews were posted today: an open beta Q&A with Champions Online's Bill Roper and a ship customization & bridge officer interview with Star Trek Online's Craig Zinkievich. We'll sum up our thoughts on these two must-read interview and invite you to comment, plus link you to new Atlantica Online and WoW guides, a new epic thread, and real world news you won't believe in Loading... The Good Ship Pwnage!


The Pulse

First, you vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Hammer Pulse (What is Pulse?). Here's the top 5 MMORPGs today:

  1. World of Warcraft
  2. Warhammer Online (UP 1)
  3. EverQuest 2 (down 1)

  4. Lord of the Rings Online
    (UP 2)
  5. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (down 1)

And here are the biggest movers in the Top 20 today:

  1. Champions Online (UP 4 to #9)
  2. Darkfall (down 3 to #13)
  3. Lineage 2 (UP 2 to 15)

Loading... Daily

Loading... our content is green-grocer fresh, it's our readers who are spoiled.

Apologies to those who haven't been receiving Loading... regularly. We've fed the squirrels powering the mail server and our tech team reports they're looking much more spry, so this Loading should arrive as planned.

In yesterday's Loading I mentioned that crafting in Fallen Earth might be the most exciting thing I've seen come out of a disappointing GDC 2009 yet. IGN Vault's first look at Huxley gameplay proved me wrong. Huxley, like Global Agenda and APB, belongs to that cadre of present day or near-future shoot 'em up MMOs that has a lot of promise for online FPS fans. From what we can see and hear, Huxley has a sort of X-Men appeal to it, with Dr. Huxley as a sort of neutral and currently AWOL Professor Xavier. The Main Street Disneyland-inspired setting has me wondering, though. Who takes the streetcar to work when there are jet-powered motorcycle mounts to be had? I'll let you watch the video and draw your own conclusions.

We have two brief exclusive interviews right here at Ten Ton Hammer that are well worth a read: a beta interview with Champions Online's Bill Roper and a bridge officer & ship customization Q&A with Star Trek Online's Craig Zinkievich. CO is on the cusp of open beta - the very cusp, I say - of open beta, and Bill shares his thoughts on how to conduct a successful beta and open beta to get the difficulty of the content, the fun and challenge, just right. Like many of you who wrote me after the poaching Loading..., Bill feels that there was zero wrongdoing when Cryptic went after beta testers using the City of Heroes official boards. And will Champions Online be the first MMO to implement one of the most notable innovations of Warhammer Online - public quests? Will they admit to filching PQs? Yep, but read on.

Our GDC 2009 Star Trek Online Q&A is one of those interviews that as you read, you can just feel the excitement building. I'll confess that I get inordinate jollies out of managing ship's crew and ship loadouts in the slender assortment of games where it's possible. On the loadout side, certainly EVE Online and Pirates of the Burning Sea qualify, but the prime example for me is Silent Hunter 3 & 4. It's not like those sub crews have personalities or dialogue trees. But when you have time to dive and instead try to duke it out with a Kate bomber on the surface and one of your AA guys gets strafed and killed, it's a much more immersive touch to see that crew member grayed out on the crew management screen and see that your Bofors gun loading 50% slower rather than, say, seeing your crew strength bar tick down by one and the penalty effect applied ship wide. Or maybe that same gunner was an expert marksmen and you based your decision not to dive on the fact that he routinely takes planes out before they're in skip bombing range - chalk up one more flying meatball for the conning tower.

Bridge officers seem to have that kind of effect on ship function, decision-making, and tactics, and Craig goes into detail on the interplay between you and your bridge officers in this Q&A. Apart from your crew, Cryptic has long been known as the company that gives you just about all the cosmetic customization options you could ever want at the very beginning. STO will be no exception, but as Craig notes, your Galaxy class may have a unique look, but will still have the silhouette of a Galaxy class no matter what you do. Craig also speaks to the death penalty for ships and crews for (I believe) the first time ever in this interview, too, so have a look!

Those of you that are into vehicular styled MMOs, what are your thoughts about ship and crew management? Are you a micromanaging min-maxer like me, or will your starship have one of those "Get in, sit down, shut up, and hang on!" bumper stickers? Share your thoughts in the Loading... forum, or feel free to email me.


Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our WoW: The Wrath of the Lich King Discussion forum

To Oracle or Not

In today's thread, ShadowDragon asks the burning World of Warcraft question: to Oracle, or not to Oracle?

"For
those of you brave and bold enough to venture into the Basin in
Northrend, you had the opportunity to do quests for either the
Frenzyheart tribe or the Oracles," ShadowDragon says. "For those who
have made the choice: which one did you choose and why? My DK has the
initial Frenzyheart intro quest and I have begun looking at the various
rewards to help me decide which to choose. It did look like my mages
might prefer the Oracles. What is your experience?"

So, brave adventurers, what's your take? Come tell us which quest line you prefer and why it works for you.

==============================
Epic Quote from the Epic Thread

"Oracles = Mysterious Egg = Rare chance of hatching Proto Drake.

Need I say more?
"

- Maegwynn
==============================

Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!

5 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 127 in March! 387 in 2009!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]

  • Exclusive Star Trek Online Interview with Craig Zinkievich - Ships and the Impact of Bridge Officers

    Any MMO bearing the Cryptic Studios name is bound to have a staggering amount of customization options available to players. But what happens when you take that core concept and extend it far beyond the cosmetic and fully into the realm of functional mechanics?  Thanks to a robust alien creation tool, upcoming Star Trek Online could very well raise the bar in terms of cosmetic options, but character customization doesn’t end there, not by a long shot. Ten Ton Hammer recently sat down with executive producer Craig Zinkievich to discuss ship customization, learning some interesting details about the impact of bridge officers along the way.
  • Exclusive Interview with Champions Online's Bill Roper

    Answering questions faster than a speeding bullet, and more experienced than teams of developers. It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...Bill Roper? Recently added to Cryptic's Champions Online team, he brings nearly a decade of game design with him and isn't shy about sharing it. Ten Ton Hammer discusses the beta program (including the NCsoft forum controversy), grouping, and open missions with Bill, and you don't want to miss his straightforward answers.
  • Atlantica Online Gunner Quick Guide

    Danny "Ralsu" Gourley fell in love with Atlantica Online back in beta, and he still enjoys the strategic gameplay. To help other players get a grasp on this tactical title, Ralsu brings a guide to the gunner unit that readers will only find at Ten Ton Hammer.
  • World of Warcraft: Gearing up the Priest for Raids

    In order to Raid you need good gear, and in  order to get good gear you need to Raid… Ya I know what you are thinking; how  the hell does that work? What are you going to do? I’ll tell you what you are  going to do! You are going to roll up your sleeves and get down and dirty in the  everlasting quest for purple (epic) gear! We are going to grind, beg, borrow  and steal to get enough gear to break through that threshold that takes us from  completely sucking to mediocre, and allows you to Raid with confidence.
  • World of Warcraft: Northrend Reputation Guide for Warlocks

    Getting good gear in World of Warcraft has never been easier. Wrath of the Lich King introduced several new factions in the expansion, but also offered ways that grinding out the faction wasn't so tedious. Today, Dave Garber takes a look at some of the Northrend reputation rewards for Warlocks. Find out what's hot and what's not in Ten Ton Hammer's Northrend Reputation Guide for Warlocks.

Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:

  1. Paul Barnett's GDC Blog #3 - Elvis is in the GDC
  2. Ether Saga Dev Diary #2 - The Quests
  3. Sins of a Solar Spymaster #5: How to Infiltrate a Hostile Alliance
  4. geeked: "Paul Sitting"
  5. Warhammer Online: Paul Barnett's GDC Blog # 2 - WAR Pants
  6. Beginner's Look at Darkfall - Or, How to Get Ganked
  7. Vanguard: State of the Game
  8. World of Warcraft Comic: Gooob & Begud - "May Cause Leakage"
  9. Exclusive Game Update Q&A with Aion's Brian Knox from GDC 2009
  10. Exclusive Interview with EverQuest 2's Ryan Favale

Real World News


Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

-- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Huxley Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Jeff joined the Ten Ton Hammer team in 2004 covering EverQuest II, and he's had his hands on just about every PC online and multiplayer game he could since.

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