MMORPG News: Moonlight Blade Update, Albion Online, Crowfall Delay, Bless, Lineage II Classic

Crowfall announced last week that they would be delaying its testing phase. Whether this is good or bad news for you depends on whether you want something poorly optimized merely for the sake of playing it.
ArtCraft, the team behind the game stated that they were delaying Crowfall “in favor of realizing additional gains in performance.”
It’s always good to see developers opting to improve their game before making it more publicly available (*cough* Atlas *cough*.)

Good news for fans of the upcoming scifi themed space sandbox MMORPG, Dual Universe: Novaquark, the team behind the game have announced that they will be expanding their studio by hiring a team of up to 50 people in Montreal.
The game, along with the team behind it have been consistently growing in Paris up to this point, so it’s nice to see they’ve gotten large enough to warrant a move like this.

This one’s strange. Honestly, I’m excited for Ship of Heroes. Why? Because it looks as though it could potentially be a very, very cool new superhero themed MMORPG.
However, the team behind the game have revealed what they’re hard at work with, and for some reason are under the impression that this needs talked about.
According to them, when you level, your HP and MP will immediately restore, you’ll gain increased stats and access to new abilities.. yup, exactly the same thing that happens in every other MMO.
I don’t know what about this announcement makes them think this makes the game unique but.. more power to them?

Like seemingly every other MMORPG, EverQuest, next month, will be rolling out their new progression servers; servers aimed at providing a “classic experience” to players.
This will provide interested fans the ability to go through the game once again, expansion by expansion, withessing and experiencing everything as they are relevant.
Two servers will be rolled out, the Selo shard that will feature increased XP gains and the Mangler shard that will actually see both reduced XP gain and additional XP lost upon death.
Players will require an active subscription to play on these two shards.
This isn’t the first time Daybreak have rolled out progression servers, though, and the continued dilution of players through additional servers is only hurting your playerbase overall.

This one is a little different as I’d rather mention the company as a whole.
Nexon, the company behind games like MapleStory, Riders of Icarus and Vindictus reported that they had a record-high financial year in 2018, with games like MapleStory and MapleStory M performing exceptionally well in Korea along with Dungeon & Fighter in China.
Now, the reason I have an entire section of this video dedicated to Nexon is because outside of their upcoming Project BBQ title.. and let’s be honest here, we aren’t even certain we’ll receive it in the West, the company doesn’t have anything scheduled on PC for 2019.
This is a little disconcerting as Nexon has always delivered PC MMOs to the West, even if they turned out to be bad. Instead, Nexon will be releasing various Mobile games as that’s what we as PC gamers want.
So rule Nexon out of the developers that will be releasing any PC-related games in 2019, including Moonlight Blade.

Speaking of MapleStory, Nexon have announced a new “Project New Leaf” for MapleStory 2. This new initiative will attempt to create an open channel of communication between both the company developers themselves and the playerbase.
Nexon will go about publishing blogs posts, detailing changes that they are planning on making to the game after which players can leave feedback on the proposed changes.
If you’re curious and want to see what this is like in action, then head on over to MapleStory 2’s website and chime in on their very first blog.

Good news for fans of Torchlight Frontiers! Perfect World Entertainment revealed that the game’s third closed alpha would be beginning soon and that old participants along with new lucky alpha testers will be able to participate!
The goal? Do everything you can to overwhelm the servers so they can stress-test them.
Unlike previous alphas, they plan on keeping the alpha going without taking it down, allowing you to continue to experience every new update and every new feature that gets rolled out.
So if you’re looking to play Torchlight Frontiers, there is no plan on closing the alpha so jump in and keep playing!
Oh, right, and that NDA that prevented players from discussing or posting videos of the game will also be gone.

Fans of Albion Online may be happy to know that in an effort to combat cheating in its game the team behind the popular MMO are implementing an anti-cheating system.
As I don’t currently play Albion Online I’m unable to really comment on it but suffice it to say that if it’s anything like XIGNCODE, an anti-cheating anti-hacking program used by other MMOs I’m not impressed.
The anti-cheating program will be automatically installed onto your computer as of the latest patch so be aware of whether or not the program remains running after closing out of the game, as many programs like this do.

New content for Champions Online at last! No, not content you can actually play through. Definitely not.
Instead, new content was released in the way of a brand-spanking new paid Archetype. For those of you unaware, Archetypes were added into Champions Online with the conversion to a free-to-play model.
They give players a more simplified power system that acts as a class system employed by most MMOs. There are free Archetypes and Paid Archetypes, and the Midnight Arcehtype is.. you guessed it, a paid Archetype.
So.. more to waste your money on, I guess?

Neowiz, the team behind the “incredibly popular” MMORPG Bless Online is releasing a brand-new update taking players into a brand new raid: The Urdaata War Fortress.
The raid in question is a 10-player max level instance that adds new loot for players to earn. Additionally, the update brings with it new cosmetic items for players to spend real money on.
Whether or not Bless Online has the player numbers to actually fulfill the raid requirements or not remains to be seen, however.

For fans of Lineage II Classic – and there are tens of thousands of you playing concurrently – you’re in for some good news!
The game is rolling out its very first major update on February 27th. The update will feature new hunting grounds, raid bosses, and the third class advancement so get your body ready!

If you’re a fan of The Elder Scrolls Online, then no doubt you’ve been highly anticipating the new Wrathstone DLC.
ZeniMax, the team behind ESO have announced that Wrathstone, which will feature the release of the Dwemer complex Frostvault and Aleyid ruins of Malatar will be rolling out on the PC on February 25th, with console ports having access to the game on March 12th.
The new Wrathstone DLC will also begin the Season of the Dragon that will continue into June with the release of ESO’s new Elsweyr expansion.

Yes, Ship of Heroes, Champions Online and now DC Universe Online. I guess you could say March is going to be a.. “super” month. Hmm? Too much? Kay. Unlike Champions Online however, DC Universe Online is receiving its newest episode titled “Justice League Dark.”
Daybreak, the team behind DC Universe Online are calling the episode a “large-scale episode with level-agnostic event versions of content” and a “variety of singleplayer and multiplayer adventures set in several magical and otherworldly locales, including the House of Mystery.”
Justice League Dark will be releasing simultaneously on both PC and console on March 28th.