WildStar: Devspeak – Ability Mechanics

WildStar launches a new video aimed at showing players can expect for skill mechanics. (I added a transcript of the video as well.)

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CHECK OUT WILDSTAR’S LATEST DEVSPEAK: ABILITY MECHANICS!

Come check out the latest episode of DevSpeak, where we tell you how you, the player, control what your character can do. You will learn more about how WildStar deals with the traditional Instant, Cast time and Channel abilities.

You’ll discover what we mean by “needing our players to interact with their abilities in a much more reactive way”, so be sure to watch this new episode of Devspeak!

Come check out the latest episode of DevSpeak, where we tell you how you, the player, control what your character can do. You will learn more about how WildStar deals with the traditional Instant, Cast time and Channel abilities.
You’ll discover what we mean by “needing our players to interact with their abilities in a much more reactive way”, so be sure to watch this new episode of Devspeak!

Transcript:

Welcome to WildStar, this is DevSpeak. [Disclaimerthon].

In previous episodes, we talked about how moving and aiming combat is in WildStar. After all, combat is what you will be doing most often, so we want to make sure you are having fun out there.

We showed you Crowd Control, how breakout gameplay gives you a way to fight back when disabled. But before we start talking about Classes – and we can’t wait – we need to have a little chat about the special sauce in our combat sandwich. It’s the way you, as the player, control what your character can do. I’m talking about Ability Mechanics. In other words, how you interact with the game in order to use your abilities.

Now, in most MMOs, you’ve got your standard set: instant abilities, cast time, and channel. Instant, cast time, channel. Instant, cast time, channel. Hit the button, wait for it to do its thing, make a chicken sandwich.

In WildStar, we needed players to interact with their abilities in a much more reactive way because circumstances can change, quickly. That’s why, in addition to instant abilities, we’ve made the vast majority of our cast time and channel spells mobile. Whether you’re channeling and chasing or charging and fleeing. On top of that, we’ve added a whole suite of cast methods designed to be reactive. Like rapid tap. Wait until an enemy is vulnerable and *tap* *tap* *tap*. Once you activate it, you’ve only got a short window to get your hits in, so tap it while it counts.

Ability charges have multiple uses, but no time limit. So, fire off some steady damage and keep one in reserve. Or stun this poor chum and dump all your characters…yer dead!

Charge and Release has a more reactive take on cast time. You can hold the button to charge up, but if homie pulls a fast one, fire it off and change tactics. Might not do as much damage, but it won’t go to waste.

Press and Hold is a reactive channel and feels supremely gratifying. Hold the button, people start dying. Need to react to something Just let go and do your thing.

What this approach to ability mechanics does is take a combat system built on movement and aiming and adds reactive mobile casting and variety. ‘Cos being a healer, tank, or dps, we think everyone deserves to feel like a spider monkey ninja. If they want.

Now, we’ve covered almost all aspects of the WildStar combat sandwich. We’re almost ready to take a bite and get into classes. Until then, reach out to us. Let us know what you want to see in our combat system. As always, the devs are listening.

BLESS Showcases Wolf King Transformation Tech

Pmang finally released new information last month and it was a big sigh of relief for me to know the project was still in the works. This week, Pmang drops a new trailer of Kone, the Wolf King’s transformation. I did my best to Google Translate; apologies up front!

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Major boss battles may often use transformation techniques. Transformation processes look great as the fight nears an end.

Graphics rendering technology has been designed to allow “transforming”. Since the early days, there were many twists and turns to this tech. A movie like “Transformers” show robots in the process of transforming; this example helps players understand what’s happening to the monsters.

BLESS’ superior graphics render maximum benefits via DirectX 11.

This is the nation’s first use of this technology in an online game. Of course, this has been used previously in some existing console games, but this is the first case for a domestic online game.

– The surface of monsters allow for “material change”
– The body shape can grow (such as claws) via prolonged morphing effects
– Tessellation is a primary process for the details and geometry

Through a combination of the above techniques, transformations can be created instantly for monsters and characters. After transforming the look as a show only, the transformation process can create a new and interesting experience for the player.

DIY Bioluminescent Zen Fountain (Gizmodo.com)

Bioluminescence has always intrigued me. Having this in my home? That’s amazing.

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Making a Stunning, Glow-in-the-Dark Fountain Is Surprisingly Simple

Bioluminescence is awesome. Essentially the production of light by a living organism, e.g. fireflies, certain types of jellyfish, etc—but it doesn’t just occur in animals. There’s even some plant life that has the potential to give off that lovely, ethereal glow. And as Mark Rober shows us in the video above, you can even harness that power to become your very own natural, eerie, and totally beautiful light source.

Because fortunately for us, bioluminescent sea algae is perfect for our purposes and just happens to be for sale as a water mixture on our good ol’ friend, the internet.

The only problem is that, to get that nice blue sheen, the water has to be constantly in motion. Which is where Rober got the genius idea to make use of a flowing zen fountain. The algae in the water will, unfortunately, eventually run out of energy and thus light, but until that happens, you’ve got yourself a fantastically clever and stunning lamp to light up the night.

Borrego Stardance – Amazing Timelapse Videos

This is a pretty incredible timelapse of the stars from a small town of Borrego Springs, CA. Thanks to their regulated “outdoor lighting” policies, they have virtually zero lighting pollution and the stars are crystal clear.

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After the surprise success of DEATH VALLEY DREAMLAPSE 1 (vimeo.com/57757618) and 2 (vimeo.com/65008584), our next adventure takes us to the desert town of Borrego Springs, California — a remarkable hidden gem surrounded by the 600,000 acre Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Just three hours south of Los Angeles, this unspoiled landscape shines not only for its natural wonders, but for the absolutely amazing, enormous metal sculptures left behind by local business leader Dennis Avery. Dragons, Dinosaurs, Giant Scorpions, Wooly Mammoths, and much more! All created by incredible steel sculptor ricardoabreceda.com/. ALSO, since Borrego Springs (pop 3500) takes significant steps to protect their pristine night sky, they are 1 of only 4 communities in the WORLD to be certified as an official “Dark Sky Community” by the International Dark Sky Association. See bit.ly/T3icoB.

This crazy combination of amazing steel sculptures and protected sky led to some pretty cool results, as the giant creatures awoke for a midnight “Stardance.” Definitely the best Milky Way shots we’ve ever captured, as well as some exciting star trails, and more experiments with “Starscaping” (shifting from stars to trails in mid-shot). This was also our first shoot with the Canon 6D, and we were very happy with the pushed ISO results. Star Trails shot at 25 sec exposures. No special effects used, just the natural rotation of the earth’s axis. Photography Merging using STARSTAX. Shot with Canon 6D and 5Dmkii, with a 24mm/1.4 lens and 28mm/1.8.

While visiting, we also learned that the philanthropist who commissioned and erected the statues (Dennis Avery) passed away almost a year ago, but allotted the land surrounding the statues (Galleta Meadows) to be free for people to camp on and enjoy. His mantra was supposedly “Blessings are meant to be shared”. We thank him for the vision and the opportunity. Hopefully our little video will help share those blessings even more. To learn more about the man and the location, check out galletameadows.com/.

New DIY Kit Turns Household Items Into Drones (PopSci.com)

Your own evil empire is just within your grasp! Even as 3-D printing is working with liquid metals at room temp, you can now turn your old motherboards, keyboards, mice, and more into the unmanned vehicles you’ve always wanted thanks to Jasper van Loenen’s Vimeo video.

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This 3-D printing kit lets you transform any sufficiently light object into a flying quadrotor.

DIY Keyboard Drone Jasper van Loenen, via Vimeo

Really, why shouldn’t keyboards fly? A new suitcase-size kit by Dutch artist Jasper van Loenen lets you attach four rotors to almost any object so that you can fly it like a drone.

The kit includes instructions for 3-D printing four clamps that screw into the object and hold the mounts for propellers. You also need to 3-D print a body to house the electronics, which include a radio receiver, flight controller, bluetooth module, and four motors, each with an electronic speed controller.

The software for piloting the drone comes from OpenPilot, an open source autopilot and stabilization project. A full parts list can be found here, and the DIY drone even has an Instructables page.

In the video below, van Loenen drone-ifies a bicycle tire, a keyboard, a boogie board, a book, and an old landline phone. The possibilites are constrained almost entirely by physics—too heavy an object and the motors can’t lift it, too weirdly shaped and it won’t be able to fly straight. For now, there’s no camera included in the plans, so the pilot has to remain in sight of the drone.

DIY (Drone It Yourself) v1.0 from Jasper van Loenen on Vimeo.

GW2: Optimized Pinata/Firework Route (GuildWars2Hub.com)

Xerin over at GW2Hub has posted an excellent guide on how to most quickly collect all of the pinatas and fireworks you need during the Dragon Bash celebration. He even included a video. Good stuff!

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In this guide we provide you with an optimized route for collecting Pinata’s and Fireworks in Lion’s Arch. In addition, we’ve also presented a video below to show you the route in action as well as a few sneaky tips.

GW2Hub would like to thank Cold2 for this excellent contribution, while you can view all our  Dragon Bash content by hitting the Waypoint below!

Original GuildWars2Hub.com Article

WildStar: What Game Testers See Now

I’ve been interested in WildStar for a long while now, but this week’s WildStar Wednesday is pretty great. They provided about a four-minute video of what the level 6-10 content looks like for their current “Friends and Family” testing phase.

1. Tons of action combat. You freely move around, attack while moving, have clearly distinguishable mob and player AOE ground marks (even some unique AOE patterns like an X), etc.

2. Mob diversity. Even at these low levels, there are at least 10 different mobs showed.

3. Quest path diversity. The four paths (soldier, scientist, explorer, and settler) all seem to be interesting and offer players a truly unique way to experience identical content areas in completely different ways. In fact, all of the paths look viable and useful.

4. The game feels like Torchlight + WOW in a sci-fi arena and I am really digging it!

The original article is over here and this week’s video is just below. Enjoy!

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WILDSTAR WEDNESDAY: AN INSIDE LOOK AT WILDSTAR’S FRIENDS & FAMILY

Hello Everyone,

We promised you something a bit different this week, something that we’ve never shown before, and that’s what you get! Behold: The first video to show you what our Friends and Family testers are experiencing in WildStar! Over the next few weeks we’ll be gathering your reactions and questions, in tandem with visits to some of your favorite gaming website! We’ll be kicking things off over on Reddit, with an IAMA AMAA by Carbine’s own Executive Producer, Jeremy Gaffney!

Today’s video is just the tip of the iceberg! So keep your eyes on the WildStar headlines for more in-depth updates from your pals at Carbine Studios! Don’t forget to check out our WildStar Facebook page either!