Weekly MMO news round-up: Fireworks, Copernicus, mystical powers, new servers

By Stephany Nunneley

It’s that time again. The MMO news round-up post full of links, and other goodies for the online crowd.

This week, loads of games are having annual summer events full of festivities, fireworks and other shenanigans. Some also got level cap increases, are nerfing classes, launching new servers, going bankrupt, and one has even reminded us it’s still in development.

What a week. Hit the page fold for the rest.

• Loads of MMOs have summer festivals going on at the moment. Here’s the list: Runes of Magic, Lord of the Rings, World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Guild Wars, EQII, Priston Tale and probably a few others we just don’t know about.

• Champions Online will have a Mystic power set for Sorcery and Supernatural. In the final “All About Powers”, discussion, the developers delve into the dark arts and describe different types of arcana for Primal Shamans, Necromancers, etc. Neato.

• SOE has updated the lore in EQ to coincide with the new Underfoot expansion which goes live in November. If you are an EverQuest player, you should go have a read. Also, EQ’s new server, Mayong 51/50, has opened and there is a 51 percent experience boost for players on all servers until Monday morning.

• Frogster has announced that a new server has been opened for Runes of Magic. Reni, is the new PvE server and to celebrate it and the July 4th holiday in the states, players of all levels get 75 percent off Item Shop specials. For a single Diamond, players can buy a Bundle of Fireworks and join in the festivities. Hooray.

• BioWare has put out a new video on the Old Republic website, which gives an update to the time line. You’ll notice it focuses on the nomadic Mandalorians who find glory in battle and do not care for the Jedi very much. Go check it out.

• Blizzard has spoken up regarding an upcoming nerf to the Death Knight class. Apparently the DK was tanking better than it should have, and being able to survive hits better than the warrior class. This bit of balancing is expected in the next patch update. Also, July 6-13 is the Darkmoon Faire which you can read more about here.

• Age of Conan’s Craig Morrison spoke with IncGamers regarding launch issues, content, subscriber numbers, and why it has taken a year to get some of the game’s problems addressed. Should be an interesting read to those who play it. Thanks, Blue.

• City of Heroes will be getting a Double XP weekend at the end of the month. So, from July 31 – August 2, log in and get to cracking.

• The Chronicles of Spellborn will become a free-to-play, micro-transaction game by next year. To get things moving smoothly for the transition, the developers will be working with Korean Runes of Magic developer Frogster Asia. Once things are a done deal, current subscribers will be switched over to the new free model. Also, the developers are bankrupt. Sad, that.

• Perfect World has increased the level cap for Ether Saga Online from 90 to 105, and new class skills have also been added. More over on Massively.

• Bounty Bay Online is now available in French. Ma qualite ! C’est des nouvelles merveilleuses pour des joueurs en France. Thanks, Gamershell.

• A Guild Wars book trilogy is in the works and it is called Guild Wars: Fall of Ascalon. Written by Matt Forbeck, it’s set to hit stores February 23, 2010. Rumor has it the second in the series is by J. Robert King, also for release in 2010. Guild Wars 2 won’t come out until the books have been released, and the trilogy is supposed to explain and detail the time line between the two series. More over on KillTenRats.

• Ys Online has gone into Beta in Europe, and good news for participants – your character will carry over to the game’s launch. To find out how to get into the open Beta, hit this link.

• The Todd McFarlane and R.A. Salvatore fantasy-MMO, Copernicus, is an IP that will have books, graphic novels, and with 38 Studios recently acquiring Big Huge Games and its cross platform Mercury Engine – the possibility of it heading to consoles is not too much of a stretch. We are just glad to learn the game is still in the works. Now give us some Drizzt, Salvatore, or the panther gets it! More through Joystiq.