Games on the Horizon
Titles We're Testing & Possible Chapters
In Legacy we have two types of games we all play as a community, “Chapters” as seen above under the name in the menu, and “Expeditions”. Expeditions are exactly as they sound – temporary forays into new games to see if they are worth putting more time and organization into. Games we test that exceed our expectations and fit within our schedule we deem then a “chapter” and it is then sent to leadership to formally organize for. Currently as of this writing, our only chapters we are 99% playing are Ashes of Creation and Elyon.
For potential chapters, there are a lot of games we look forward to. Unfortunately many end up being cash-grabs or simply lack the things we feel will keep the interest of our core players for any length of time. We look for the following criteria when following a game to be a potential chapter:
Qualifications for a Legacy Chapter:
- Must be able to allow over a hundred players from a single community to play together. This does not mean a single guild, as long as there remains the ability to party up across multiple guilds. We are a larger community and we will not leave members behind, even casual ones.
- Must have a competitive scene, preferably with both PvP and PvE. We historically have played PvE-only titles, but with the understanding there was competition involved for progression, whether it be downing bosses in raids, or similar.
- Must not be blatantly pay-to-win. We don’t mind free-to-play games with a cash incentive, we draw the line at pure power creep through real-life money.
- Must support a basic organization within the game for a clan, guild, or similar. We need the ability to transfer our community ranks into the game, so rank order is respected. Basic officer ranks, leader ranks, and preferably a few member ranks are needed in coordination the overall logistics we run.
- Must fall under the “massively multiplayer” scheme. We prefer big audiences and even bigger choice of competition. We typically draw the line at 5000 concurrent players or more. Obviously exceptions can apply, but we have held pretty strong at that number. We aim for games with more players than that, and typically plan an exit strategy for when games fall below that. We do not wish to make up 10% of the entire game’s population.
- Developers must be proactive in either responding or working with veteran PvP groups. We like to see developers that either come from a competitive background, or developers that actively seek out top groups for direct feedback in improving their game. It matters little if it’s us as much as if its anyone at all. We do not want to be involved in games where developers cater to the casual crowds only.
Current Titles Being Explored:
Lost Ark
Develop: Smilegate
Publisher: Amazon
Current Stance:
Legacy has played Lost Ark and all of its content already, and we are happy with what we’ve seen so far. At our peak, we had over 50 members involved, and many of our top grinders hit the top ranks and held them for months. That said – there’s only so much you can get done with 300+ ping, so we are waiting for the further announcements regarding the launch dates for the west. Amazon recently secured the publishing rights, which is great news to us. If the title doesn’t overlap any of our other major games, we’re in. We currently have roles and channels assigned for both the testers and aspiring adventurers in our Discord.
Escape from TarkoV
Developer: Battlestate Games
Publisher: Battlestate Games
Current Stance:
Probably the one game that all of our FPS players come back to year after year is Escape from Tarkov by Battlestate Games. Besides being a hyper-realistic shooter with focus on full-looting, it features a persistent character progression system in a post-apocalyptic world. We have played numerous “wipes” and patches through the years, and anticipate the full-release of the seamless “zone to zone” ability coming later. This feature when implemented will turn what are currently “rounds” into almost a seamless open-world experience, and introduce a whole new world of multiplayer opportunities. Tarkov features one of the most elaborate player economies in massively-multiplayer games also, which is a huge plus for us. Legacy is always playing Tarkov on its wipes if we’re not busy with anything else, and if they continue to add even more persistence and features, we see this becoming a huge possible game for the majority of our community.
CorePunk
Developer: Artificial Core
Publisher: ARTIFICIAL CORE
Current Stance:
Corepunk exists in the realm of ARPGs alongside older titles such as Albion Online and Runescape. At first sight, Corepunk looks like a casual mobile MMO, hell we even thought so when we were first introduced. Many videos and gameplay sessions later – we are convinced this will be a huge title in the same way games like Albion were. One of the most appealing features for us is the open-world PvP being welcomed as part of the core gameplay. The game also features a deep dive into player economies, player-controlled points of interest, and more which appeal to our community a lot. We have a number of individuals who have a lot of internal knowledge of the game, but for the sake of NDAs, all we can say is we’re ready to give it a shot and are excited.
Starbase
Developer: Frozenbyte
Publisher: FrozenByte
Current Stance:
Starbase is an upcoming sandbox space-sim by Frozenbyte. It falls in the same genre with popular games such as Space Engineers and Avorion, allowing a full builder for your ships, stations, and more. The difference with Starbase is that it is trying to push the limits with the MMO-side of the game, expanding player counts into the hundreds locally, and infinitely globally. It effectively is trying to combine the customization of Space Engineers with the scalability of EVE Online, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Legacy has a number of testers who have played multiple builds of the game, designed ships, and more. We remain skeptical due to performance issues, but we have put our money where our mouths are and continue to support the game fully. We have a lot of history in sandbox titles and if we decide to fully take off in Starbase, we feel we will do very well. We have a Discord for Starbase for security reasons, as well as main roles on our Discord. We’re ready, but keeping restraint.
Project TL (The Lineage)
Developer: TeamTL
Publisher: NCSoft
Current Stance:
Project TL (Lineage) is NCSoft’s direct competitor to Lost Ark and similar ARPG titles. For the longest time people thought the game had completely died, as it was actually announced nearly 7-8 years ago. It originally used the old Guild Wars 2 engine, but within the last years they decided to completely remake the game and carry the assets over to Unreal 4, to achieve in theory a higher fidelity to compete with others titles such as Lost Ark. Project TL is probably the most secretive of all the titles we are following, but we got lucky in that a few of our Korean members shared some information that the game is very much alive, very much getting “money dumped into it” and should be a serious competitor to look at in the following year. Recent NCSoft communication states that they intend on releasing a proper website, FAQ, beta, and more in the coming year. Legacy specifically became interested with the lengthy talks of sieges, player territory, and deep customization for PvP – so color us interested and excited.
Blue Protocol
Developer: Bandai Namco Studios
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games America
Current Stance:
We wouldn’t be self-described weebs if we didn’t have a hype train for Blue Protocol. We have a large number of community members who have played multiple builds of the game, and at the least, we’re extremely happy with our limited experience. Although Blue Protocol doesn’t have any PvP (as of launch) we played similar games in the past just for the enjoyment of progressing faster and grinding harder than other guilds. We held rank 1 in Soulworker (another non-pvp Anime MMO) for almost 2 months during it’s launch, so needless to say, don’t underestimate our anime lovers in Legacy. This one is an easy choice for us having played it already, and we can’t wait for it’s launch. We just hope it doesn’t overlap one of our PvP chapters. If it doesn’t, we’re already there.
Other Games On the Border:
There are a few games we’re on the fence about/not completely sold on. We will list them here, but for the moment, they are considered “unknown”.
- New World – We used to be huge fans of New World back when it was an open sandbox/survival game. We played in numerous tests – very successfully – and absolutely loved it. Those days are gone however, with new leadership at Amazon Game Studios, the game took a nasty turn towards becoming the most casual title we had ever seen. Gone were the days of open world PvP, flagging, freedom of building castles/nodes, and more. Maybe the game will turn it back around? We will see, but we’re not holding our breath. LazyPeon did a nice summary of how bad the game has become.
- Gloria Victus – The game remains in what seems to be a perpetual beta, but from our early experiences, we are pretty excited as the possibility of this game becoming something much bigger. Gloria Victus simply is Mordhau meets MMO, and we’ve already had a taste of how fun it is when hundreds of players get together in sieges. Unfortunately, hundreds of players is a rarity, as the game sits under 500 at any given time, and outside of primetime, feels like a completely dead game at the moment.
- Last Oasis – Time will tell if the developers become serious about the potential they have in this game. We entered the EA launch of Last Oasis and did our thing, but watched as the game was destroyed internally by lack of proper focus by the developers. Maybe they’ll fire the lead, maybe they’ll realize the feedback given was more important than they realized. We will see.
- Archeage 2 – This game was recently announced as a “remake” of the game we all loved. Legacy has a ton of history in Archeage and many of our core members were found during those years. We anticipate this game being huge and unavoidable, and can’t wait til they show off some features and content.