Game Reviews

• Star Trek Online Now Free to Play January 19, 2012

   by Gene Turnbow

  

  Cryptic Studio's STAR TREK ONLINE

  If you’ve been following the gaming news here on Krypton Radio, you may remember our article on the trend toward free-to-play MMO’s.  This seems to be the new  business model for online gaming: give enough of the game away for free that people get hooked on the experience and are willing to pay to get more of the same.  The Star Trek Online  MMO opened to mixed reviews almost a full year ago, but they seem to be listening to their customers and fixing some of the more glaring problems with the game – and removing some of the barrier to entry that was keeping many fans away.

  Cryptic Studios’ Star Trek Online has adopted a tiered free-to-play (F2P) model where nonpaying “Silver” players will still get to have a robust Star Trek experience, while reserving some of the more advanced game features such as creating guilds and playing multiple characters for the players willing to shell out the monthly $14.99 subscription fee.

  For many of the game’s features, simply playing 20 hours in the game will put the free-to-play player on par with those who have bought a subscription. Users who have made an in-store purchase or who have previously purchased a subscription will also gain many of the paid perks without paying a cent. Cryptic also said that it had added new weekly episodes, the name that the game gives to “quests.”

  “We couldn’t be more excited,” said Jack Emmert, chief executive of Cryptic Studios, in a statement. “Updating Star Trek Online to the popular free-to-play model removes those barriers of entry that previously kept fans and casual gamers away. Anyone can download and play Star Trek Online at no cost. There’s no better way to see how sitting in the captain’s chair feels.”

  Originally launching in March 2010, Star Trek Online included cinematic space combat, a wealth of possible player characters, and a disappointing away-team combat mechanic, according to a PCMag review – but we understand they’ve been addressing these issues as well.

  We spoke with one player, Dan Vanderwood, who had been playing STO since beta and whom we had contacted via our growing Facebook fan base:

  Krypton Radio: What do you think of how the planet surface scenarios are being handled now. Has their been any improvement?

  DV: The away missions to the planet surfaces are still clunky, but easy enough to use.  Combat is still a pain. All in all, I’m thoroughly enjoying it, and prefer surface to space combat. Turning radius on my little engineering ship is horrible. Mind, I’m only a lieutenant 3rd grade right now.

  KR: What would you say to the negative comparison of the planet-side part of the game to Second Life? Anything improved about the parts of the game that rely on diplomacy?

  DV: The two really aren’t comparable. Second Life has a freedom to it, while STO is just a game. It would be like comparing SL to Halo. There are diplomatic aspects, but everything I’ve run into so far eventually leads to combat (a Vulcan ambassador being an Undine/8472 for instance). Keep in mind, I’m not very far into the game yet, but it’s much more linear than SL.

  Personally speaking, I’m intrigued.  I’m going to go try it as soon as I’m done posting this article, if my notebook can muscle it’s way through the massive 3.4Gb download it’ll require.  Enjoy the video, try and game and post your comments on the game.  Is this going to help Star Trek Online rise, or sink?  What do you think?

   

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• Krypton Radio Looking for On-Air Talent! January 6, 2012

  Do you have what it takes to be our On Air Fan Talent?

  Krypton Media Group™ aka Krypton Universe™ / Krypton Radio™, is looking for original Fan Talent to host a morning show on Krypton Radio! We’re looking for individuals, or even a small group that is willing and able to produce its’ own show to be aired on Krypton Radio, with a minimum of three new episodes per calender week.

  What is Fan Talent? Fan talent is like what you see on YouTube, people or groups using their talents to produce low-budget, yet high quality shows or series, in lieu of the millions of dollars some big budget studios pay to produce something of the same quality. We admit it, we’re not a huge station with 10 Million listeners, but we’re rising fast and looking for someone to jump on at the ground floor with us and ride to the top.

  How We Can Help You

  Let’s face it, everybody and his pet rock has a podcast these days.  Google is full to overflowing with them.  Therein lies the problem, though – how to you get heard in this tidal wave of downloadable content?  When everybody has a podcast and a blog, how do you get noticed? Getting your show heard depends on having a high traffic web site to start with, developing a strong fan base and online community and having contacts with whom you can cross-promote it all.  Krypton Radio has all this and wants to share it with you in exchange for being able to air your creative content on our radio station. We have literally thousands of listeners a month, in 109 countries all around the world.  You can take the next three years and develop your presence on the web from scratch, or you can join ours and skip the hard part.

  If you have an idea for a show that you want to do, we can help you by putting it on air for free (radio stations typically have hourly operating costs and normally charge for air time)  and giving you assistance and guidance getting your show produced in a slick, polished manner.  Producers for Krypton Radio will get the benefit of exposure to thousands of listeners each month, and the growing Krypton Radio fan base.  We’ll work with you on cross promotions between your web site and ours, and we’ll coordinate with you on your ad campaigns so that you get maximum yield from your own advertising and promotion.  We want to help you succeed.

  Requirements for On-Air Production:

  • You must have a clear and understandable voice.
  • You must be able to produce/edit own show from home, with minor oversight from Krypton Radio (we reserve the right to review each episode before airing).
  • Your content must be kept PG-13 or better at all times. Kids and their parents both listen to this station.  No vulgar or explicit language or content. If you must use an expletive it must be bleeped or blurred out.  (And obviously, we don’t do either politics or hate speech, but we hope that goes without saying.)
  • You must be able to tape at least 3 shows per week on a consistent basis.
  • Your show must be a half  hour to an hour in length, or time can be varied for purposes of including advertisements (do not insert your own advertising).
  • Experience with the fandom in any of the following themes is strongly preferred:

  • Superhero / Comics
  • Science Fiction
  • Steampunk
  • Fantasy
  • Gaming
  • Must have experience with Social Media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

  If you’re interested in joining the Krypton Radio  team and share our passion for the scifi/fantasy geekosphere and the awesome music that comes with it, e-mail  thepitch@kryptonradio.com, include your full legal name, performance name (stage name, if any), and a working phone number. Tell us about yourself, your experiences, what you love about the genres we cover, and what you bring to the table. Please also include your ideas of what you would like to do with the morning show, and anything other information you feel is relevant.

  Important Notes

  • Yes, we can accept podcasts, so long as the podcast can be repackaged as a prerecorded show for broadcast on Krypton Radio.  You must mention that your show is broadcast on Krypton Radio at the beginning and end of each episod. You are getting air time free of charge, this is all we ask for recompense at this time.
  • We love the idea of syndication – airing existing podcasts as broadcast shows.  It shows that you have your production process down and can deliver on a regular basis, because you’ve already been doing it.  We may ask to receive a copy of a finished pilot episode if you’re new to this sort of thing so that we can help you assess where your weak spots in production values are and help you make your show the best it can be.
  • If you’re doing a news show or have news topics in it, the material must be delivered in a timely manner.
  • We are fully BMI / ASCAP licensed.  Which means if you want to include a clip of some song or music in the body of your show, it’s legal.
  • You agree that other than this, that you have acquired all necessary licenses, ownership and clearances for the material you present and agree to indemnify Krypton Radio from any legal ramifications that may result from your use of it in the body of your show. This means that you can have a show that talks about somebody else’s intellectual property or material, but you cannot, for example, make a fanfic show using characters from your favorite TV show, book or movie  as characters in your own production.  Unless you’ve got a contract that gives you the right to do that.

  Don’t Be Shy About This

  Lacking one or two bullet points may not stop you from getting your show on the air.  We’ll help you figure stuff out, or figure ways around production problems.  Remember that we’re fan geeks just like you.  Let’s get you on the air!

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• Game Reviews: "Doctor Who: Worlds in Time - Beta" December 29, 2011

  It stinks! Or does it?

  A Game Review Rant, by Staff Editor PK.

  So I was poked with a stick this morning and asked what I thought about Doctor Who: Worlds in Time; not being a big gamer I hadn’t tried it yet, so I agreed to give it a whirl.  Unlike many of the KR staffers, I’m not a huge game player, which sometimes in the case of reviewing new games is a good thing. If like me and you’re not a big gamer, or you just like to hear about the new user experience, then I’ll give an honest and fair albeit slightly cynical opinion on it. Doctor Who: Worlds in Time, from the BBC and Three Rings, is a web-browser Adobe Flash based game which looks like it was inspired by the artwork from Atomic Betty. And while I may not be a dedicated game player, I am a life long Doctor Who fan, and as such was interested when I was told about an MMORPG featuring everyone’s favorite mad man in the little blue box.

  I didn’t read anyone’s reviews or look up history on the game, I decided to dive headfirst into it and go from there. Loading up the site DoctorWhoWit.com, I’m greeted by the BBC logo and a small flash movie featuring the current Doctor (played by the amazing Matt Smith), in which a bobble-headed cartoonish Doctor, speaking in text balloons blathers on about how the time stream and universe is breaking apart into temporal shards. (This was somewhat of a disappointment right off the bat, as text balloons are no match for Matt Smith’s remarkable and spastic acting talent which he displays as the Doctor.) The initial impression was that this was going to be nothing more than a kids game, and as I slowly proceeded I discovered I was correct. After watching the short film, I saw that I was required to sign up for an account in order to play the game. Pretty normal, and it was painless as I was allowed to sign up with a simple connection to my Facebook account. You’re also allowed the option to sign up using a form asking for your personal information along with your e-mail, easy enough. I must say though, without even starting the game, it was already wearing a bit thin on me as a fan. There was no iconic Doctor Who music from the show, and they couldn’t even be bothered to get Matt Smith to voice the character. Nitpicking I know, but details count!

  Signed up and ready to go, I loaded up the game and was presented with the character design screen. You’re given the choice of four species from the Doctor Who universe, which you can mix and match in ways. After choosing a foxish looking character, I find myself in pajamas with the Tardis in my bedroom. The Doctor leans out the door and invites me inside to have a chat, at which time he tells me about how I’m the right man/beast for the job to help him save the universe. Like many Doctor Who fans, we’ve all had the dream at one point or time to go with the Doctor on an adventure, and this seemed like the great opportunity to be one of the Doctor’s companions. Although from your character’s point of view, you’ve just been sucked into a strange blue box with a raving mad man in a bow-tie who says he needs you to save the universe for him. Without question or a real back-story, my character is given a Psychic Wand, which appears to be a poor-man’s sonic screwdriver. The Doctor then in so many words tells me to get to work, and I try, but he’s locked the front door. My first task in the game is to use the psychic wand to pick the lock of the front door to the Tardis, which you accomplish by playing a puzzle game, where you have to shoot pins into the lock and defeat it by matching colored metal rods to make them vanish.

  An almost reverse form of Tetris ensues as you attempt to escape from the Tardis in order to begin the mission that the raving bow-tied one has assigned you; once I had finally finished the lock puzzle, I ran from the Tardis (still in my pajamas) out into modern day London. I’m greeted by the sight of people running from a clothing store screaming about how the mannequins had come to life and gone crazy; not to shrug off my new duties as a hero, I rush into the store and find a woman saying how stupid it was of her to have kept the back door locked during business hours. (Why I couldn’t just ask her for the keys, I don’t know.) The game indicates that I must once again pick the lock with my psychic wand, I do so and proceed outside. Finding a crystal shard guarded by two mannequins and another puzzle, this time I must…. give up. At this point I was becoming bored and the third puzzle had me convinced that the rest of the game was going to be like this. Nothing but inane micro puzzles from games that we played 10-15 years ago, and as I polled my friends who had tried the game and gotten much farther than I had, they agreed it was quaint and somewhat old-school. As you progress through the game you have the ability to work with assistants, and at some point you’ll get to work with other players such as yourself, it seems fun in theory, but falls a bit flat in presentation.

  I exited the game and looked around the site for more information, which there is none. The F.A.Q, the forums, and anything else that would give the average game consumer in-depth info on the game or the appropriate player age is currently unavailable. I want to be fair and point out this is a beta version of the game, they call it a preview version. So while I was less than impressed, it’s possible the game will improve with time. However it appears this is aimed more at young kids, which is a bit of an issue. Unless you happen to be addicted to simple minded puzzles and bobble-headed Canadian cartoon style animation, then you may not want to embrace this game. Remember how I said my character was running about in his jammies? Well, you have the option to purchase upgrades using in-game currency, which you can earn, but mostly you’re encouraged to purchase with real world money. Much like buying apps for your iPhone, you can use micro-transactions to buy weapons and clothing for your character. But I have to ask, do you really want to? The game from what I’ve seen so far and been told about, is that it’s child safe, but junior will need mommy or daddy’s credit card to buy the upgrades he’ll eventually want.

  As this game is in beta at the moment, I’ll reserve final judgement until I can look through a more complete version. But so far, as a big fan of the show I’m very unimpressed with this, and wondering why they didn’t spend their energy developing the other higher quality Doctor Who game into an MMORPG? If you want to play a truly fun game, check out Doctor Who – The Adventure Games. Downloadable gaming episodes where you can play The Doctor, Amy, and Rory in adventures based on episodes of the show.

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• Game Review - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim November 28, 2011

  		The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  		Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks
  	Genre:	Open-world RPG
  	Rating:	Mature for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol

  Game review by Wade Manns
  Reprinted by permission from eCorsair.com

  

  Bethesda's SkyRim is the most impressive, immersive open world RPG to date, building powerfully on the previous Elder Scrolls titles. Bethedsa says they shipped seven million copies worldwide on the game's launch. Half of the game's "launch units" were sold in the first 48 hours and the studio says it is swamped for large reorders. Skyrim set a record on Steam with more than 280,000 concurrent players.

  It’s here! The most eagerly-anticipated RPG for many followers of the epic Elder Scrolls series has arrived. Is it worth the hype and all the positive feedback? Oh, yes, it certainly is!

  Like all other games in the series, you begin by creating your character from one of ten races, either male or female, and you can also fine-tune their facial and body appearance for even more customization! This is one of those games that let you truly own your experience; more on that later.

  In the fantastical realm of Tamriel, in the snowy lands of the province of Skyrim, two hundred years after the last of the Septim emperors was lost, you’re a prisoner accused of collaborating with a dissident faction which threatens to rip Skyrim apart. You’re moments from your execution when—A dragon! Roaring out of the sky, blasting the little village to dust and cinder, Alduin, the Nordic aspect of the Aedra (ancient god) Akatosh, is back to devour the world, or so ancient Nord prophecies foretell. You are a very rare breed, the Dragonborn, or Dovahkiin, the similarly prophesied hero. You have the power to collect the souls of dragons throughout the land and power your Shout ability; this is an innate magic power that allows you to alter reality with your voice!

  It’s certainly something to be able to bowl people over by simply shouting an arcane word at them, but of course more power exists that lies in wait for you to find. Simply penetrate to the core of a number of the many lavishly detailed, very beautiful dungeons littered throughout the land, and absorb the Word of Power that glows on the wall before you; then, with a collected dragon soul, you may equip it and partake in a little of its power! You must, however, find all the words in a set before the Words unlock their full potential…

  The journey to become strong enough to defeat Alduin is a long one, but it’s far from dull. Every corner hides another mine, cavern, shack or small village that has secrets to be revealed. And the nine grand holds throughout the land (Whiterun, Winterhold, Solitude and Riften are four of them) serve as the cities from which you’ll do most of your questing.

  There have been some changes to the previous Elder Scrolls formulae, including the fact that there are no major or minor skills anymore, and each leveled skill contributes to level up. Each level gained confers an increase to your choice of Health, Magicka (magic energy) or Stamina, as well as a perk (or special ability) that can be assigned to any skill you desire. This results in a more free-form character development experience, as opposed to previous games where you pretty much had to specialize.

  It also may take some getting used to the interface: a button press leads you to a compass-style screen with your Skills, Magic, Map and Items arranged around it; you hold a direction to go into the desired screen. This appears to be a concession to console gamers, but I found it easy enough to get used to after a while. The PC version has some unbindable keys in inventory and conversation modes at this writing, requiring you to use the defaults which may be in awkward positions, but again, you can get used to that.

  One of the potentially tedious things about the game is that it takes a long time to level up – but this seems to be more about the pacing of the game and how many hours you’re likely to pour into it.  It’s not a fast blast through the experience meter by any means.  You’re better off not worrying about that, and just deal with things as they come up.

  Be warned: This world is incredibly deep and enthralling, and a little knowledge of past Elder Scrolls events will do you good, but is not necessary. That being said, I am seven hours into the game and am only at the fourth phase (of very many) of the main quest; expect to spend upwards of a hundred hours (and many more!) trying to find everything, if Oblivion and Fallout 3 were any indication. But like those previous Bethesda titles, this is an incredibly detailed and beautiful game, and I most definitely recommend it to everyone who can deal with the mature subject matter that these types of games have come to exhibit. Five out of five!

  There are already bugfixes out for the PS3 version of the game, with X-Box 360 and PC patches on the way.

  - 30 -

  About the Author

  

  Krypton Radio game reviewer Wade Manns

  Wade Manns is currently finishing his General Associate of Arts with a major in Journalism.  In addition to his work for Krypton Radio, he also writes and edits for the Corsair, the student-run paper at Pensacola State College. His passion is video games, but he also likes reading science fiction, spending time with friends and engaging in social networking.

   

  Links

  • The official Elder Scrolls: SkyRim web site
  • PC Gamer – 20 Best SkyRim Mods So Far
  • Andrea’s Blog – Home of “Alchemy Helper”
  • BnB Gaming – Little Details of Skyrim

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• Game Review: Travian 4, the Online Multiplayer Game October 14, 2011

   By Menedemus

  

  Travian - a capitol village...

  Let me tell you about a game I discovered two years ago:  Travian.  It’s a cool strategy game, like Risk, or Axis & Allies.  It does take longer to play – sometimes as much as a year.  You play it on the Internet, along with other players, just like World of  Warcraft, or Second Life.

  In Travian, there is nothing to download.  It’s a massively multiplayer  browser based game. Once you sign up, you’re  ready to play (it’s possible to play Travian  and Second Life  at the  same time). Travian is missing the dimension of sound, that’s one of the reasons why.  You don’t hear swords clashing, or trumpets blowing.

  Travian is a strategy game of resources and combat – you will first build a village, and then build troops to defend it. After that, you can raid other peoples villages.  Later you can build more villages and expand your empire.

  How to Start

  First go to travian.com and sign up.  Select what country’s server you want to play.
  Travian is in several different languages, so if you Speak Arabic, or another language, then you can choose the language, or country that would best suit you. I always choose the U.S. server.

  The Tribes

  Next pick your Travian name, and the tribe you want. You have three choices: Romans, Teuton, and   Gauls.

  Romans

  Romans are great at both offense and defense. They can also build two things
  at a time, and they can build outside of the village, and inside the village at the same time  – so they can upgrade a resource field and a building simultaneously.  Now the down side to being a Roman:  Roman troops take more resources to make, and they take longer.

  Teutons

  Teutons are great offensively. They can also reach inside of crannies, and get 1/5 of  resources that they are hiding. Teuton troops are also cheap, and don’t take long to make. The best  Teuton tactic is to make lots and lots of troops. Some players make more troops than they can feed, so they have to raid other villages over and over.

  Now the down side to being a  Teuton – while Teutons are great at attacking, they are not very good at defending. They also can build, but  only one  thing at a time. So if a Teuton player is upgrading a resource field, then he can’t build any thing in the village until the resource field is finished.

  Gauls

  Gauls are great at defense, and can build a trap device that can trap troops that are attacking or raiding. Their crannies can also hide more resources. Gauls also have the most fastest troops. The fastest Gaul troop, the Theutates Thunder, can travel at 19 fields an hour. With a level 20 tournament square, the Theutates Thunder can travel any where on the map in five hours.

  The down side to being a Gaul is that they’re not very good at attack, though there are players with Gaul hammers, just as there are players that have Teuton anvils. Gauls are also slow builders, and can only build one thing at a time. Just like the Teutons.

  The Servers

  Server speed counts. A game on a regular server will last for about 11 months. On a speedier server, about three to four months.

  After you have picked your server, you then pick which quadrant you want to be in, the southeast, southwest, northeast, or the northwest.

  Your First Village

  When you start out, you will have a village with a population of two .  You will only have one building in your village. That building is the main building where the architects of your village live.
  Your first task is to upgrade the resource fields, and the main building.
  There are four different resources. Wood, clay,  iron, and wheat.
  If you start playing Travian on the first day that the server starts, then you
  will have three days of beginners protection. In Travian, it is called BP.
  That means that for three days, nobody can attack  or raid you.

  So, you need to build a cranny early on. Crannies help protect your resources.
  If a player has no crannies, and they get raided, then they will lose all of their resources.  At level 10, a cranny will hide 1,000 of each resources,(Gauls 2,000).
  While you have BP, you can raid other players. As long as they don’t have BP, then you can raid them.

  Once you have a level three main building, warehouse, and a granary, you can then build the market place. If you have a level three main building, and a rally point, you can then build a barracks. With a barracks, you can start making troops.

  Once you have two or more troops, then you can start raiding. If you prefer to build an army and do lots of raiding, or attacking, then you might want to build the barracks first, and the market place later.

  Some players prefer to build pretty villages and concentrate on commerce. In Travian, these players are called “simmers”, and are good for raiding since most of these will have few, or no troops.

  Sending Out Troops

  First click on the village you want to attack. Next, click on the “send troops” button.  You’ll see three options:

  • Reinf.  – Send reinforcements
  • Attack -  Normal Attack
  • Attack: Raid

  If it’s just a raid, then you choose the third option. You choose option number two if you want to send catapults, if you have troops trapped in a Gauls trapper, or if you want to kill all the troops in a village.

  Also, if you want to chief a village, then you will have to send an attack, and destroy the residence. You can’t chief a capital, or an only village. So if a player has one village, that village can’t be chiefed. It can be reduced to zero, but not wiped off the map.

  To chief a village, you will need one of these troop types.

  • Roman= Senator
  • Teutons= Chieftain
  • Gauls= Chief

  To build any of the three troop types will take lots of resources.  The first time  I made a senator, I had four villages. I made three senators, and it took lots of resources, and it was hard. With 12 villages this round, I’m making 5 senators, and it is easier.

  You can send raids, or attacks on other villages any time of the day, but your village isn’t exempt from attack either – so you should build crannies, and keep your troops out of the village. If they stay in the village, they’ll likely get killed. Later on, when your troop count is more substantial it’s safer to leave them in the village. Also, keeping troops in your  village is like keeping your money under the mattress. If you are going to be offline for eight hours, then send them out for four hours.

  That would be four hours out, and four hours back. The one exception is scouts. You should try to have at least one, or more scouts in your village. You will need scouts in your village, so that if your village is scouted, you will know about it. Also your scouts will help kill the other persons scouts. So if you have 10 scouts in your village, and someone send five scouts, to scout your village, then all five scouts will die. The person that scouted your village will not find out anything.

  Later in the game, you should have at 20, or more scouts in your village. If you have just one scout in your village, and somebody scouts you with 200 scouts, then you won’t know that your village was scouted.

  When sending out an attack, or raid, be sure to send out at least two or more troops. If you send out just one it’ll get creamed. Also, the first villages that you raid should have a population that is less than 10. Villages larger than that might have at least one troop. That one troop is going to be a rat. The rat is sent to a player, after they have completed a quest. The quests are for new players. People that have played before can also do the quests. Each quest, will tell you what to build, and in what order.

  Don’t be a farm

  A player that gets raided over and over and is losing resources is called a farm. At any given time, I might have about 20 raids going out. In my two years of playing Travian, I have farmed several players. Most of the players are no longer active, or they might play once a day. To play Travian, you need to be able to login at least twice a day. If not, then you’ll end up being a farm yourself. While you can have only one account on each server(multiple accounts will get you banned), several people can share the same account. These are called dual accounts. Most duals are made up of two people, but some can be as many as four, or more. Dual accounts grow very fast, and tend to have the largest amount of troops. Travian can be played on a Smartphone, or on an Iphone. Many people that play Travian, will check in from work on their Smartphone, so that helps with the problem.

  Another way, to not being a farm is to have a sitter. A sitter can check in on your account, and build for you, and send your troops out. You can tell your sitter what you would like built. You can have up to two sitters, and sit for two other players. It is best that your sitters live in different time zones, and that your sitters come from the same alliance as yours.  A sitter can send out raids, but not attacks.

  Alliances

  In order to succeed in Travian, you will need to join an alliance. Being in one lets you ask for reinforcements if you need them. Other players will send troops to your village, and help you to defend your village.   It works offensively too – many players in an alliance can team up and attack other alliances. It is hard for a player to without being in an alliance.  Players that aren’t in alliance are routinely raided by just about anyone.

  To join an alliance, you will need an embassy at level one. If you wish to start your own alliance, you will need an embassy at level three. At level three, you can have nine players in your alliance. Each additional level you can have three more members, and at level 20, you can have 60 members.

  Now what if you wish to have more than 60 members? Then what you do then is you have wings. I have seen alliances that had four, or more wings. Some alliances have taken up a whole quad. That is the goal that an alliance should try to meet before end game.

  End Game

  Now we get to what is called end game. There is a fourth race, called the Natars. The Natars are an NPC (“non-player character”) race. If you are playing Travian 3.5, then the Natars will spawn about three months after the server starts. These villages are called artifacts. You will need a treasure chamber at level 10 to house a small artifact, and a level 20 treasure chamber to house a large artifact.

  Different artifacts can do different things. Some can make you troops go fast, spies stronger, or lets you build the great warehouse, or a great grainary.  To get an artifact, you will need to send a hero. A hero is a regular troop that has been trained in the hero’s mansion. If your hero dies, he can be revived. You will need to destroy a treasure chamber in order to get the artifact.

  About 10 months after the server starts, some more Natar villages will spawn. These villages are called World Wonder villages. In these villages are built the World Wonder,( or some times called WW). There are about 13 of these. Each alliance will try to chief one, or more WW villages. The  WW villages that an alliance will chief, is going to be in the same quad that the alliance is located. So if an alliance is located in the SE, then it will chief a WW village in the SE. The first alliance to get their WW to level 100 wins.
  An alliance’s WW village is just bound to be attacked. (You saw that one coming, didn’t you?) To defend a WW takes lots of troops. No one person, or alliance wing can build a WW – it takes several players in more than one wing to build and defend one. I have seen some WW villages being defended by as many as 5 million troops, coming from several players. Some players will send as many as 50,000 troops or more. Naturally, they’ll all need to be fed. Each player that has troops in a WW village will have to send wheat. There’s no limit to how much resources you can send to a WW village.

  Problems, and Rules

  The amount of lag is about the same as you will find going to a website. You don’t need broadband – if you haven’t got it, it still works fine.  I’ve known many people that play Travian using dial-up.

  They’re pretty strict about language; when sending somebody a message, don’t cuss, or send any offensive language. You can get in trouble and get banned. You also can’t name your village after a swear word or use it to insult or defame someone. The Multi Hunter can change the name of your village. I have seen some peoples village name changed to Fluffy Bunny Colony. Since the company is located in Germany, you can’t name your village after Hitler, or send that word in a message to somebody.

  Now lets get to sending resources. There used to be pushing rules. At one time, you could only send some one, one hour of production a day. If you sent too much, then you got banned. Now it’s built in and you can send up to 14 hours a week. Once you have reached that limit, then you won’t be able to send any more resources for one week.

  So that is about all I will tell you about Travian. If you wish to know more, then I would suggest that you play the game. The game is free, unless you wish to buy gold – and that’s how they make their money running it.  It’s playable and enjoyable without having to do that.  Try it and find out for yourself!

  - 30 -

  Links

  • Travian.com

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• The Game Traveller Reviews "Lord of the Rings Online" July 15, 2011
  

  Elf Country - a screenshot from Lord of the Rings Online

  by Jeremiah C.

  Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) is a fantasy MMORPG from Turbine, Inc. and Midway Games Codemasters.

  I’ve taken my sweet time getting to my latest review. And it’s not for nothing.

  This is the first real entry of what is arguably one of the most popular fantasy series of the past century. Based first on a series of stories from J.R.R. Tolkien and then more recently on a series of movies directed by Peter Jackson, which kicked off an entirely new level of interest both in the fantasy genre itself, and in the world of Middle Earth, from video games and re-printings of the books to new versions of the table-top RPG.

  As a fan of both the old tabletop RPG as well as the movies themselves, I found myself looking at the company that produced this and trying not to simply bang my head into a wall. God no, I didn’t want this to be another clog in the toilet! It took everything short of a hand grenade to get Dungeons and Dragons Online out of there!

  The download for this game is massive. I mean MASSIVE. The SMALL download was 9GB. I’m old enough to remember when that was the size of your whole bloody hard drive! The large version ranges from 11GB-13GB depending on which you want. I went out of my way to find a copy that was NOT downloaded from Turbine’s servers (Yes, that’s a good idea, put a file in one piece and force your fans to download it at near-dialup speeds. Brilliant!) be it a torrent or simply a hosted file on a gaming site somewhere else.

  

  The Town of Bree - screenshot from Lord of the Rings Online

  Once I had it downloaded – the install process began. And for this one, I suggest getting a copy of the movies and sitting down to watch. It’s a ridiculously slow installation, even on a computer with 4 CPUs and a pile of RAM.

  A meal and a few thousand unblinking stares from Elijah Wood, and we’re installed. A few laughs and some Orcs running across a field, and the patching is done too. I went out of my way to get the largest download, the size justified by very high resolution files, which were of a formidable size.

  So it began – the character building software was very good, easy to use – with a neat little video for each race and each of the various classes. There are four available races for free players – Human, Elf, Dwarf and Hobbit – with the classes available varying between them.
  Hobbits make good sneak-attackers and poor tanks, Dwarves make  good tanks and front line fighters, Elves make excellent support characters and spellcasters, while also making formidable ranged attackers and front-row fighters. Humans are soft of a balance between the others,
  not really having advantage or disadvantage.

  On to the game – Elves and Dwarves begin in the mountains, Humans and Hobbits in Bree-land and the Shire. I can’t emphasize enough, just how
  gorgeous the world actually is! Not the same scrub and trees everywhere, but a whole world, hills to mountains and everything in between – all in full color, using a great palette of colors. Holy crap! You can even find Tom Bombadil! You know, that laughing lunatic from the books that didn’t make it into either the radio show, or the animated movie, or Peter Jackson’s movies?

  Gorgeous textures, very good gameplay, and all the characters from the books?

  Brilliant!

  
  Links

   

  • Play Lord of the Rings Online for free!

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• The Game Traveller Reviews "Knights Online" June 10, 2011

  Jeremiah C. reviews "Knight Online", a fantasy MMORPG offering from GamersFirst.

  

  Moradon City, from GamersFirst's "Knights Online"

  Where do I start with this thing?

  Knights Online is a 3D fantasy MMORPG set in the middle ages.  The back story is long and rambling, and if there were any central characters that didn’t classify as sentient forces of nature, it might have been an interesting read.The graphics engine is competent, though not astonishing, and it’s the same one used in about a half dozen of GamersFirst offerings, all downloadable from the same web site.

  You start off having to find the server that works best and has the fewest crowding of random spam – ah, I mean players. You have to choose your faction, right at the beginning. You must choose between Dated Graphics Floaty Red Crystal Bighead Faction, or Human-y Townlamp Slightly Okay Faction. And if you want to change factions, or even create a character in the other faction, you must delete ALL characters in the original faction.

  The game has the four boring stereotypical hey-we’re-crappier-than-D&D classes, Warriors, Magicians, Priests, and the Slightly-More-Squishy-Than-Warriors-But-Stabbier Rogues. The Townlamp Faction has three “races”, one Big Hulking All-Warrior-Grunt-Grunt-Conan Barbarians, Male We’re-Actually-Humans and Female We’re-Actually-Humans. Well, that’s an exciting selection.Big musclehead warriors, or boring humans.

  Only the Crystally Bighead Faction, for some reason, allows female characters to be spellcasters, so you’re left with Big Muscleheads, Big Megabrains, or More Boring Humans.

  Once you are in the game, there are no tutorials, and no real direction – just a note at the corner of your screen that says “By the way, if you could find this lost kid that we forced you to try to find, despite not telling you where the hell she actually is, or giving you any real clue how to find anything in the game..?” And the tens of thousands of merchant stalls. I’m serious. It is like walking into a farmer’s market, if every farmer from the Western hemisphere decided they were going to dude out in their best suit of armor and stand around with a big sign over their head saying “BUY MY THINGS, EVEN IF I NEVER TELL YOU WHAT THEY ARE!” Never mind that armor would rarely if ever have been worn in a medieval marketplace.

  It suffices to say, without any real clue where to go or what to do, I decided to check out that other faction.

  But you can’t delete characters without a premium account.

  And you can’t log in to any of the other 25 servers without a premium account.

  It’s important for a game to put its best foot forward when trying to attract new players, especially for an MMO. “Knights Online” does not satisfy.

  Links

  • http://www.gamersfirst.com/knightonlineworld/

  - 30 -

  About the Author:Jeremiah C is a player of video games and a traveler of virtual worlds with thirty years of experience. His reviews cover his experiences not only with Massively Multiplayer Online games,but single-player games as well. Visit his blog site,http://gametraveller.blogspot.com/. This review reprinted with permission.  Game Traveller can be heard each week in its special segment in Vagabond Carter’s STARK REALITY.
  

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Incoming search terms:

• lotro bree
• lotro breeland
• lord of the rings online bree house
• lotro monster map