Welcome back for another weekly recap of Indie MMO news. Along with the PR push for two major releases next week (Zenith: The Last City and Broken Ranks), there were several Q&A posts mixed in with the usual patch notes and playtest announcements.
While the IMS always scours the internet for all things indie MMO-related, I wanted to highlight one particular article before jumping into the rest of the news. This week, MMORPG’s Steven Weber shared his top indie MMO picks in “5 Indie MMOs You Should Try in 2022”. Be sure to give it a read after you finish this week’s Indie MMO Spotlight.
Bitcraft
Are you interested in Bitcraft but have a burning question about the gameplay? Odds are someone else has the same question, so Clockwork Labs has gathered up some of the questions asked by the community on the Bitcraft Discord and posted their answers on their blog.
Broken Ranks
A news post on the Broken Ranks website gave a quick introduction to the combat system used in Broken Ranks. Combat may be turn-based, but with each round only lasting 10 seconds your foes won’t hesitate to smash in your skull whether you’re ready or not.
For those who can’t wait for the January 25 launch of Broken Ranks, you can at least pre-download the client now.
Chimeraland
It was a busy week for Chimeraland developer, Proxima Beta. Not only did they increase the capacity of their servers on Wednesday, but they also added the evolved Grand beast Dragon Horse, started the Fire God Awakening event (running through Feb. 4) and posted the answers to a recent AMA.
The Cycle: Frontier
Scratticus was at it again with another edition of Life on Fortuna 3 on the Yager Twitch channel.
Dual Universe
Last week, Novaquark announced the addition of the Panacea to the DU roadmap. They followed that announcement up this week by shedding some light on the expected changes with a duo of blog posts. The first post covered the changes and improvements to the camera Lua API, while the second post filled us in on how you’ll be able to generate some extra quanta through space wrecks and inactive asset requisitioning.
Farwoods
Farwoods, the furry RP MMO we discovered recently, is holding weekly playtests on Friday and Sunday. If you are interested in joining in, head to the Farwoods Discord to sign up.
Foxhole
There was a bit of a kerfuffle in Foxhole this week as a player group called Logistics Organisation for General Improvement (LOGI) went on strike after requests for developer Siege Camp to make some changes to logistics gameplay went unanswered. Our war correspondent, Christina Gonzalez, was out in the field to gather intel on the situation.
Fractured Online
From base stats to creating your character background, the fifth edition of Featured Spotlight goes over all of the choices you’ll make during character creation.
Gloria Vicits
The new Glory Season has started in Gloria Victis, so grab your chosen implement of destruction and start climbing that ladder! Weekly Update #303 is also here, bringing with it a special jousting arena for you to test your skill with the lances that were implemented recently.
Margonem
Margonem received a small patch this week. According to the Steam patch notes, the patch was mainly just to fix some bugs. The notes did mention that Winter opponents would be leaving the world of Margonem in a week, so you only have a few days left to acquire the unique rewards they drop.
Mist Legacy
Version 0.1.11.0 (see the patch notes here) went live this week. Players are now able to reach the next reputation level in Thorval, giving them the chance to fight pirates. Gathering also received some QoL updates that make it easier (and harder in some ways) to gather resources.
Our own Scott Jeslis recently spent some time exploring Mist Legacy, so be sure to check out his initial impressions in his Mist Legacy Preview.
OrbusVR
In case you didn’t know, OrbusVR is celebrating its fourth birthday right now by bringing back the Anniversary Scavenger Hunt. A blog post this year also shared some fun facts that show how much OrbusVR grew in 2021.
Project F4E
Project F4E held a playtest Thursday and Friday, giving players a chance to check out a full mission as either the Frost Barbarian or Lightning Mage. If you missed it (like I did, sorry about that), you can always join the Project F4E Discord to stay up to date on all the F4E happenings.
Prosperous Universe
In Development Log #318, Michi talks bugs, Nick was sick, Martin gives an update on the progress of the Steam port.
Realm of the Mad God
The RotMG blog finished up the week with a new community member interview (Howdiedew). Before that, other posts covered fan art, Update 2.2.1.0, and upcoming events.
Scars of Honor
One of my favorite aspects of indie studios is how community input is often used to help mold the gameplay and features during development. Scars of Honor developer is embracing that idea with their Dev Discussion series. This week, Discussion #14 revolves around NPC behavior.
A Township Tale
In an attempt to provide more consistent communication, developer Alta has created a new blog, Alta Logs. We can expect posts every two weeks or so, and post #1 introduces us to Cayde, Alta’s Community Manager.
Zenith: The Last City
With launch day rapidly approaching, there are several guides starting to pop up for Zenith: The Last City. On Friday, RamenVR started a Zenith Launch Countdown series on the Zenith MMO YouTube channel that will share a tip each day until launch, starting with a video about how to uncover the lore and mysteries of Zenith’s past through Touch Stones. PSVR Underground also shared a video covering some other tips and tricks to help you get started when Zenith releases on Thursday.
Loose Ends
- Mirage Online Classic - Last Saturday, the biggest game feature, Class Customization, was introduced to MOC.
