Posts tagged ‘Turbine’
Dungeons & Dragons Online: Shadowfell Conspiracy Announced
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast have announced that Dungeons & Dragons Online: Shadowfell Conspiracy, the second expansion to be of course developed by Turbine. The new expantion will launch this summer, adding in a new level cap of 28 and a new “Iconic Heroes” system where players can create characters starting at level 15.
Shadowfell Conspiracy will also include two new Forgotten Realms Adventure Packs:
- Wheloon: a prison city full of irredeemable criminals and traitors to the Crown. In this place, Netherese agents conspire to forge an army out of the Kingdom’s enemies. You must masquerade as a traitor to infiltrate the Prison City, fight marauding criminal gangs, and destroy the army before it marches – all the while battling creatures made out of the very shadows.
- Stormhorns: deep in the Stormhorn Mountains, the Netherese Empire prepares to unleash its secret weapon against the Kingdom of Cormyr. Brave treacherous mountain passes through griffon territory and overcome cunning harpy ambushes. At the peaks of the mighty Stormhorns, you must overcome an alliance of giants and monstrous creatures – only to have to contend with a terrible Netherese secret weapon.
Bonus for Table-Top D&D players, if your interested in the Shadowfell Conspiracy you can now download the first of this adventure series as a PDFs at DriveThru RPG. You can get dead-tree versions of the rest you can get at Amazon.com
- H1: Keep on the Shadowfell
- H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth
- H3 Pyramid of Shadows
- The Shadowfell Source Book: Gloomwrought and Beyond
WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT AND WIZARDS OF THE COAST UNVEIL DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE®: SHADOWFELL CONSPIRACY™
NEEDHAM, MA – 26th February 2013 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast unveiled today Dungeons & Dragons Online®: Shadowfell Conspiracy™, the second expansion to the award-winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine. Shadowfell Conspiracy takes place in the beloved Forgotten Realms setting, features an increased level cap, introduces new Iconic Heroes and much more!
“Last year we expanded the world of DDO into the Forgotten Realms universe with the launch of our first expansion,” said Erik Boyer, Senior Producer of DDO. “This year we’re introducing more content and making it even easier to experience the latest content with the introduction of Iconic Heroes that begin at level 15, allowing players to jump right into the action.”
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE: SHADOWFELL CONSPIRACY FEATURES:
Ø Two New Forgotten Realms Adventure Packs — Featuring gorgeous new wilderness areas packed with new D&D monsters, dangerous encounters and a host of challenging dungeons.
o Wheloon: Horrors from the Shadowfell pour into Wheloon, a prison city full of irredeemable criminals and traitors to the Crown. In this place, Netherese agents conspire to forge an army out of the Kingdom’s enemies. Masquerade as a traitor to infiltrate the Prison City, fight marauding criminal gangs, and destroy the army before it marches – all the while battling creatures made out of the very shadows.
o Stormhorns: Deep in the Stormhorn Mountains, the Netherese Empire prepares to unleash its secret weapon against the Kingdom of Cormyr. Brave treacherous mountain passes through griffon territory and overcome cunning harpy ambushes. At the peaks of the mighty Stormhorns, overcome an alliance of giants and monstrous creatures – only to have to contend with a terrible Netherese secret weapon.
Ø Introducing Iconic Heroes — Jump into the action of DDO with these new prestige characters that start in Forgotten Realms at level 15 and feature unique looks and skills. Each of these classic D&D heroes is a paragon of their race and class and features custom iconic gear, appearance options and new abilities to enhance their power.
Ø Attain Epic level to 28 — Master your destiny and gain new epic feats and spells with three new Epic levels of advancement that let you reach new levels of power.
Dungeons & Dragons Online® (DDO) is a free-to-play MMORPG featuring the industry’s best combat system, a massive world with state-of-the-art graphics and gameplay, and a rich set of features that until now could only be found in premium subscription-based MMOs. DDO offers an innovative pricing model that allows players to download and play for free, purchasing adventure packs, items, and account services a la carte from the new DDO Store, or to subscribe to get unlimited access to all of the game’s content. Players can download and play DDO Unlimited for free by visiting http://www.ddo.com.
About Turbine
Turbine, Inc. is a premier creator and operator of massive, persistent online worlds that foster powerful social gaming communities. Turbine is wholly owned by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group and has created some of the world’s most popular and award-winning online games, including The Lord of the Rings Online™, Dungeons & Dragons Online® , and Asheron’s Call®. For more information on Turbine, its products and services please visit www.turbine.com.
About Hasbro
Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) is a branded play company providing children and families around the world with a wide-range of immersive entertainment offerings based on the Company’s world class brand portfolio. From toys and games, to television programming, motion pictures, video games and a comprehensive licensing program, Hasbro strives to delight its customers through the strategic leveraging of well-known and beloved brands such as TRANSFORMERS, LITTLEST PET SHOP, NERF, PLAYSKOOL, MY LITTLE PONY, G.I. JOE, MAGIC: THE GATHERING and MONOPOLY. The Hub, Hasbro’s multi-platform joint venture with Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) launched on October 10, 2010. The online home of The Hub is www.hubworld.com. The Hub logo and name are trademarks of Hub Television Networks, LLC. All rights reserved. Come see how we inspire play through our brands at http://www.hasbro.com. © 2010 Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved
About Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS), is the leader in entertaining the lifestyle gamer. The company holds an exclusive patent on trading card games (TCGs) and their method of play and produces the premier trading card game, Magic: The Gathering, among many other trading card games and family card and board games. Wizards is also a leading publisher of role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons, and publisher of fantasy series fiction with numerous New York Times best-sellers. For more information, visit the Wizards of the Coast Web site at www.wizards.com.
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Dungeons & Dragons Online, Eberron Unlimited, Stormreach, Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering and Wizards of the Coast and related logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S. and/or other jurisdictions, and are used with permission. Hasbro and its logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other jurisdictions, and are used with permission. Turbine and the Turbine logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Turbine, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other jurisdictions. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Senior Producer Eric Boyer’s 7th Anniversary Letter
This is going to be another amazing year for DDO and I am excited to get to share with you some big news on our plans. Just last week, we launched Update 17 where we got the chance to go back to Gianthold and give it a refresh. We managed to put some giants into Gianthold, not to mention more dragons and that infamous Dracolitch we’ve been talking about since year one. It’s challenging but also exciting when we get the chance to update beloved DDO features to make them even better, and you’ll see that happening on a few different fronts this year. On that topic, I know what you all want to hear about! And yes, its true, – we’ll be overhauling our bug reporting tool with updated functionality to help us capture even more of your problem details and feedback, and process them more efficiently. With that news, I know now, you are thinking, “that sounds really good… but I was sort of thinking of the rumors of an updated character enhancements system.” And I also have great news to share on that!
Work on the new enhancement system is well underway and it will be heading to its first public beta this spring. In its current iteration, each class has at least two prestige class paths. The UI, similar to the Epic Destiny tree, will be a long awaited simplification to planning your character build, but more importantly, the goal is to make better choices more accessible for both new and advanced players in the heroic levels. We are planning an extended beta for this one. We’ll be doing multiple trips to Lamannia and lots of player events to give us all an opportunity to try it on various characters and gather lots of feedback.
Another area where you will see several changes is in the introduction of more uses for Astral Diamond shards throughout our game. Volume 3 of the monster manual, which is now available as of Update 17, not only offers a chance to earn your own beholder pet, we also now let you earn direct-to-pocket Astral Shards. In the near future we will add more ways for you to earn free shards as well as some compelling new ways to use them to enhance your DDO gaming experience.
As I have always said, one of the strengths of DDO is great adventures to undertake and that is why I am most pleased to announce DDO’s second expansion titled ‘Shadowfell Conspiracy’ coming this summer! We are turning our attention back to the Forgotten Realms and we are taking you to some new regions in Cormyr. We will be taking brave heroes, level 15 and up, to a foreboding prison city to the south east of Eveningstar called Wheloon, and high up into the Stormhorn Mountains, north of the high road.
Shadowfell Conspiracy will have more than just new quests and regions, we will also be raising the level cap to 28 and providing something often requested by fans: faster access to the Forgotten Realms! With a new prestige character feature we are calling Iconic Heroes; we think we have an innovative solution that will get you right into the Forgotten Realms starting at level 15. Each of these Forgotten Realms born characters will start as a race class combination with new racial abilities. I can’t wait to tell you more about these characters in the coming months.
Later in the year we have some other great stories planned and we plan to focus our attention on the True Reincarnation options and update the system to work for Epic level players. Epic True Reincarnation would also introduce a new completionist track. What would two more stat points do to your TR character? Well, stay tuned this summer for an update on our development progress!
DDO Update 13 + DDO: Menace of the Underdark
Breaking news today for DDO! We’ve got Update 13 and a new DDO Expansion featuring the Forgotten Realms Setting and the Underdark! Looks like our www.ddo-motu.com speculation in episode 244 wasn’t too far off the mark!
Summary of New Features for DDO Sixth Birthday Update #13:
- Release date is February 22nd!
- New cosmetic pets! – Like last year’s crafting system introduction, the cosmetic pet system will be rolled out over time. Gotta collect them all!
- A new adventure pack that opens the door to the new storyline, Menace of the Underdark. This will serve as the beginning of how Eberron and Forgotten Realms (Faerun) are connected.
DDO: Menace of the Underdark (DDO:MotU) Features:
- DDO in a new campaign setting, Forgotten Realms! – You start in the village of Eveningstar and adventure through the surrounding King’s Forest wilderness in the nation of Cormyr
- New Encounters with Drow and Lolth – But do they have Umber Hulks?
- Finally, The Druid Class – you’ve been wanting it, now you get it! DRUIDS are HERE!
- Level Cap Increased to 25 – True Epic Levels with character customization options to match your EpicWin-ness!
- MotD is a premium expansion – The first actual paid for expansion for DDO. No word on cost yet.
- Release date is This Summer – no exact day just yet!
Exciting news for DDO, especially in light of Wizards of the Coast’s D&D Next announcements! Of course we’ll be talking about this on DDOcast 245! Call us at 1-650-DDO-LICH or a message if you got questions or comments you’d like to share!
Also, starting today through Jan 22nd everyone gets 20% XP Bonus and 20% off on all XP Bonus Pots in game!
If you’d like more details here are some links:
- Official DDO: Menace of the Underdark site
- Official announcement from Fernando on the DDO Forums
- Massively.com: Turbine makes ‘biggest announcement since free-to-play’ for Dungeons and Dragons Online
- MMORPG.com: Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited Interviews: Entering the Forgotten Realms
- TenTonHammer.com: DDO in 2012: Druids, the Underdark, and Forgotten Realms. Oh My!
- ZAM.com: Looking Ahead: Dungeons & Dragons Online in 2012
And oh, here are those URL’s we found from last Podcast:
Crafting with…Courtney! DDOcast 19
Courtney crafts an Iron Defender module that’s downright scary!
Crafting with…Courtney! DDOcast 18
Courtney makes a great item for your Artificer’s Iron Defender!
Crafting with…Courtney! DDOcast 17
Courtney makes a necklace that to keep anyone healthy!
Crafting with…Courtney! DDOcast 16
Courtney makes a kama that boosts healing!
Crafting with…Courtney! DDOcast 15
Courtney crafts some luck onto a Rune Arm!
Crafting with…Courtney! DDOcast 13
Courtney makes a crossbow for DDO’s new Artificers!
Crafting with…Courtney! DDOcast 12
Courtney crafts goggles to make a rogue’s job easier!
66% Done: A PAX Prime 2011 Report
Day 1: Destroying Plans & Having Fun Doing it!
One of the few hottest days of the year in Seattle also happened to coincide with the first day of PAX Prime 2011. Outside the Washington State Convention Center it was 82°F (28°C), but it felt like near 90°F (32°F) due to humidity.
Failed horridly at trying to get to the Key Note this year; I should have stopped and RTFM! But on the plus side all huge lectures are now at the Paramount Theater. Yes, I do not miss the days when it was held in a cement hall. I hope to the Live D&D Game on Day 2 of PAX.
I also got the day wrong on Marcy Rockwell’s book The Shard Axe signing wrong. (Ouch! That’s like two gutter balls in a row, if I was bowling.) It’s on Sat @ 11:30am in the Warner Brothers / Turbine Booth #932, not Friday! Ugh.
At Noon we had our interview Fernando and as usual he was on par with all the tidbits we were looking for as DDO fans! I won’t say too much here because I want to save it for the show, but I think with the new digital voice recorder & HD mic I got really did a better job than last year’s setup! I hope to have it all edited out for Ep 231 of DDOcast. Here are a few teasers:
- Talked about Update 11
- New technologies implemented in DDO
- Inspirations for Update 11 and Artificers
- House Cannith Quests and Raid Previews
- Fairness in the DDO Stores and Online Transactions
- And Of course some more screen images of DDO U11
As a side note, I have to say that Turbine was combined with the with WB games booth, so it wasn’t the total Turbine booth as it was last year. Understandably, PAX East in Boston is gonna be their main stay since it’s in their back yard. Regardless, I want to thank the Turbine Crew for taking the time to see us at PAX! You guys are awesome!
During the interview with Fernando, my digital camera started taking mutant pictures and died! You know when GS or Icy Regiments perma break? Well that’s what it feels like when your camera breaks at PAX. So we spent our Expo Hall touring time out getting a new camera.
Armed with a new camera, we met for our happy hours DDOcast meet-up in the TAP House Bar. We saw up with Marcy Rockwell and her hubby; And Marcy gifted us with a signed copy of The Shard Axe! I can’t wait to read! We also met with Phite & Ms. Phite, and Shamgar. We drank, ate tasty foods, talked DDO, games, writing, and PAX. Chatting went well beyond 6pm! Ahh the best laid plans of Mice and Men often go awry! Of course I didn’t go to the panel on Journalism!
The WB Games/Turbine PAX Party was really packed! We got VIP tickets and cut the lines into Gamesworks. Free food, Xbox game stations, shirts, buttons, cos-players, in-game swag cards, bags, free-play arcade game cards, and (thanks to Phite) I ended up with more booze tickets then they were given out! They also held a raffle for some bigger prizes. Both Phite and I ended up with a Lifetime Membership to DDO!
Overall, day one felt like a hurricane (whoops! poor choice of words for the East coast folk! I hope everyone is doing okay out there!) It was a very busy day wandering around and chatting up with friends, I learned later from a friend that the panels were packed and the lines were long. Though its super crowded, the best part about PAX is everyone is super friendly; sure we bump into each other but everyone is happy. After “sorries” are said, its a good reason to start talking games with another PAXite!
Crafting with…Courtney! DDOcast 9
Courtney makes a helmet that will dramatically increase your ability to Turn Undead!
Crafting with…Courtney! DDOcast 8
Courtney crafts a powerful weapon against devils, orthons and other baddies!
The Eberron Chronicle!
A weekly look at community news, events, and more from the world of Eberron!
Crafting with…Courtney! DDOcast 7
Courtney makes a pick to take down reavers, flensers, ghostly skeletons and more!
Crafting with…Courtney DDOcast 6
Courtney crafts a maul to crush oozes and rust monsters!
Crafting with…Courtney! DDOcast 5
Courtney makes a ring to boost Armor Class, and helps people figure out what can go where!
Crafting with…Courtney! DDOcast 4
Courtney crafts a blade fit for Dol Dorn!
Crafting with…Courtney! DDOcast 3
Courtney shows you how to make an easy item to detect secret doors in her latest “Crafting with…Courtney!”