News

In this week's "RoleCraft," Jim Moreno continues his look at character alignment in MMORPGs - this time focusing on how in-game factions make characters "evil" (or not).

In this week's examination of Clausewitz "On Gaming," Jonathan Steinhauer looks at what victory and defeat mean ... to NPC monsters.

In this week's RoleCraft, Jim Moreno looks at the standard D&D concept of alignment, how it works in roleplaying, and how it's applied to MMORPGs.

Jonathan Steinhauer continues his application of the writings of Carl Clausewitz to MMOGs, this time focusing on defeat and "life after death" in online worlds.

This week in RoleCraft, Jim Moreno looks at ways for roleplayers to deal with the Fairer Tongue of Elvish.

Jonathan Steinhauer continues his application of the writings of Carl Clausewitz to MMOGs, this time looking at what happens when victory is yours.

This time on RoleCraft, Jim Moreno wants to hear from you roleplayers out there.

In this installment of RoleCraft, Jim Moreno looks at an interesting idea from WoW RP Realms: Full Immersion Roleplaying (FIRP).

Jonathan Steinhauer continues his study of Clausewitz and examines the art of the kill.

Just in case you may not be aware, RoleCraft isn't the only place where you can find roleplaying related info on the interwebs. Of course you know that, and I'm only joking. During the course of my day, I am given and locating sites which are directly related to or merely referencing some aspect of roleplaying, and I consider it part of my duty to help keep you, my fellow roleplayers, informed as much as possible.

Since we are dealing with computer-generated cyber worlds that are more than likely not our own creations, there are certainly roadblocks and speed bumps in these games that challenge roleplayers to improvise and adapt. These game mechanics come with the nature of the beast, and many are very necessary to the operation of the games, and are often so obvious as to threaten to pull a roleplayer out of character. While they may not be pleasant to experience during roleplay, their effect in-game can be at least lessened through the lens of imaginative roleplaying.

As game worlds become more and more advanced, they also grow larger and larger. The by-product of this improvement is the long distances that must be traveled between locations. For some reason, with this increase in world size, there is not a corresponding improvement in traveling systems. Indeed, there seems to be almost a perverse joy in sending players on quests that involve running back and forth between two distant points with no other objective but carrying a bickering message between a pair of NPCs.

Jim Moreno tackles the difficult task of roleplaying a merchant in this edition of RoleCraft: "Even roleplayers are known to struggle with this cookie cutter gameplay, and with keeping their characters from looking and acting just like every other character in game. What to do? One sure way to avoid the pitfalls of routine is to realize that there are many other classes in game besides adventurer. It's time to become a professional roleplayer!"

Sean Bulger's periodic community column today looks at the concept of Open PvP (player vs. player) and what it does to games and their communities.

A while back we talked about conflict between players and what sort of a role that it can play in a game and for communities. During this, it was noted that player competition can be implemented in numerous different ways. This week, I would like to revisit this discussion and talk about one of those particular methods: the open PvP world.

Open PvP is one of the more controversial topics in MMO circles and plenty of people have fairly strong opinions one way or the other on the subject. That said, I would like to explore both the positive impacts and negative ones on the player community. Open PvP has the potential to help bond a community fairly tightly, but it also has the potential to truly tear it apart as well.

Read more after the leap.

Last week, Jonathan Steinhauer's column looked at the design of outdoor areas in The Dangerous Wilderness, Part 1. In Part 2, he continues his thoughts on the basic challenge most every MMO faces.

The easiest solution, though it avoids the root of the problem, is to disperse the ground spawns to a more realistic population level. There are areas where one would expect to encounter monsters, and that is where the heavy concentrations should be. Hard core hunting should occur in the fortresses and camps of the various villains, monsters, and animals that are the bane of the adventurer, not every time you step off the path. This opens up the wilderness for travel and casual hunting while giving players the kind of combat that exist in epic stories: battle in the lairs.

Read more after the leap.

Jim Moreno looks at the biggest question for the modern MMO roleplayer: how do you keep in character in an instance? They're here to stay, so it's time to learn how to deal with them.

Hear me now and believe me later, there is no reason why roleplayers cannot and should not engage in the same high quality RP within an instance as without. Personally, I'm not at all knowledgeable as to where the notion started from, but I absolutely aim to crush it here and henceforth. More than that, I want to share with fellow roleplayers why I think instances are the best places for RP, and provide some tips on how to take on these adventures with RP in mind. I hope they help!

Read more after the leap.

In a new editorial, columnist Jonathan Steinhauer embarks into "The Dangerous Wilderness". He looks at the concept of pf the wild and how it's presented in MMOs.

As I've wandered through the wilds of various games, I've been stunned by the panoramic vistas that have opened out before me. Trees sway in the light breeze, their leaves rustling softly through my speakers. A stream trickles by, the sunlight gleaming of the whorls and eddies of the current while in the distance, purple mountains capped with white glaciers scrape the billowing clouds. The imagery is so detailed, I could almost believe it is real.

Read more after the leap.

Check it out:Link to Post

News finally
Open beta soon and Open PvP to come :)!!! Go FW!

What King Dave said:

You have probably noticed how quiet it has been lately, and we have had a lot of people asking us what's going on behind the scenes.

Well the truth is that FreeWorld was put on hold for a while; this was mainly so we could focus on our other project Control Monger for a while and make some much needed improvements to it.
This process is now almost finished and due to complete within a week.

After that work will continue on FreeWorld which will be taking a different direction. The main aim is to make the project smaller and bring the release date much much closer, but don't worry the world will still feature everything that we have loved in the past along with all the new features and ideas.

Details on these plans will be made public within a few weeks, so stay tuned!

Posted by KingDave
___________________________________________________________________________
Finally news!!

Check out Patch News on the left side menu as it has been updated! :)!

The Patch News has been updated, check it out on the left side menu.

Still no news as of yet on the development, FW Warcry will keep you updated if there are any news from the offical site. Thank you.

Rain & snow effects in game are now using the newly added particle system. The screenshot below doesn't really give it justice but still worth a look:

Posted by King Dave at offical website

Patch news has been updated, check it out on the left side menu.

The first stage of our two stage improvements to the weather and enviroment systems has now been completed.

Each region in the game can now have its own weather patterns which change throughout the four seasons in game, ontop of that weather now varies from map to map with some maps having more chance of fog, rain or snow than others.

The next stage of improvements to this part of the game is some more realistic weather effects using the newly added particle system. Screenies will be posted soon!

Other recents developments include the majority of spells ready for the new game including many new types not previously seen including: AoE damage, leech spells, bind/freeze, resurrect and teleportation spells.

Posted by KingDave

The Patch News has been updated, Check it Out Here

From now on, you can find the latest patch releases by clicking "Patch News" on the left hand menu.

Okay since not much news has been released, I decided to start asking questions about various elements of an MMO. They are just simple, opinionated questions.

The first question can be found Here

Not much news has been posted on the offical site for Freeworld, although devs do still talk in the offical site.

Please, do not hesitate to visit the forums here or come to the offical site's forums to have a chat.

Have fun!

Check it out: Here!

For those looking for some modeling dicussions or want to buy model, visit Meiytzo's 3D Modeling Website

Check it out, these show the inside and outside of some renders of buildings:

Dev-Log About Crafting is Up!:
Click here To Read the Full Story!

Arr Matey!