As an MMO fan myself, I was most excited to hear about the last main addition to Wildstar; the upgrade system. It has been completely revamped for Arcterra and begins with the new weapon salvage system. Players will be able to salvage weapons as well as choose what components you would like to receive from the salvage itself. We can choose from three types; Item upgrade components, Runecrafting and Tradeskills. You can then take these components and attach them to individual weapons, which will upgrade them for a max of five additional levels. Of course, the attachments themselves can also be upgraded for further enhancements. When I asked the team if this would impact lower level items drops in the game and basically wipe them out, all I received was a simple smile at first. "Good question," was the response I received. To avoid lower level loot drops becoming insignificant, Wildstar will let you combine individual items to form higher level ones which you can then attack to your weapons. This will ensure every drop has a significant impact and maintains an overall strategy to the game itself. Loot drops are key in MMO's and Wildstar seems to have found the perfect new system for upgrading which encapsulates all the necessary items.
If that wasn't enough, we will also get a brand new raid called Redmoon Terror. A 20-man battle taking place on a frozen ship in the middle of deep space, we will need to face off against Mordechai Redmoon and Laveka the Dark-Hearted. The staple of this raid will be the ability for all players involved to select the difficulty of each boss in the raid before you begin. Higher difficulties, of course, yield better rewards; but, this also allows lower level players to join with higher ones without being completely out of their realm in the fight. This raid will be available on Public Test Realm (PTR) early this year in order for all players to provide feedback on its contents and functionality.
Arcterra is a combination of what all MMO players love. It has what looks to be a great story line, brilliant new upgrade system, scalable difficulty and one of the most beautiful environments you've seen in a game. No exact date is available yet for the new content, but it's set to launch in the early part of 2016 very shortly.
Finally, Wildstar is coming to Steam. PC players' prayers have been answered and Wildstar will be available to all Steam users in the first half of 2016.
And no, we didn't forget to ask about a console version of Wildstar either. The response to whether or not we would see one eventually and if there was any information was simply "Not yet". Take that however you will.
On the following page, you can see some more screens from the new Redmoon Terror raid
Wildstar is set to bring its latest content update with major changes such as a new playable area, boss battles and fully revamped weapon upgrade system. We had a chance to speak with NCSOFT in January about these updates as well as the game's impending Steam release.
The first thing I noticed when I walked into the room to speak with NCSOFT in early January about the game was the frozen image on the screen. A beautiful area that I could tell was new to the game immediately caught my eye. It was a frozen wasteland with incredible lighting that the team wasted no time beginning to talk about. It's called "Arcterra." The official description has Arcterra listed as "A frozen wasteland that has just recently been discovered, Arcterra is full of mysterious ruins, dangerous creatures, and ancient technology," but that turns out to be a pretty wide reaching description once you hear the details of this vast new area.
The Nexus Saga that began with Journey into OMNICore-1 will continue with Arcterra and the storyline of Wildstar. The new quests will lead up to chapter two in the Nexus Saga and the Vault of the Archon, which covers the story of Drusera, the Genesis Prime, and the escalating conflict with the malevolent Entity. Progressing through the storyline will unlock various quests, cut scenes with fully voiced NPC's and new battle mechanics (we'll explain these later). Each faction in the game will have their own individual character to guide them on their quests as well. The Exiles will see Dorian Walker, the famous explorer who discovered planet Nexus, aid their journey. On the other side, The Dominion will receive guidance from Artemis Zin. Being the end game in Arcterra and chapter two of the Nexus Saga, the Vault of Archon will also allow multiplayer for the first time. One to five players can group up in the dungeon, and doing so will result in a scalable difficulty and better rewards.
Like any MMO, Wildstar will also feature brand new content in its free-roaming open-world, as well as some interesting community events. The area will feature "snowballing" boss encounters (pun intended). This is a progressive design mechanic meant to encourage community participation. As players kill 2-man bosses across the zone, they fill up a meter which tracks zone-wide kills. At certain kill thresholds, 5-man bosses and then 20-man bosses will appear, offering fun and engaging encounters with great loot.
The part that will draw the most attention, however, is the Blizzard event. This will be a timed, dynamic event which will last approximately one hour. During this time, difficult 20-man bosses will spawn at random spots throughout Arcterra. Once you defeat these bosses, they will drop keys that either faction will be able to obtain. Whichever faction obtains the most keys will gain access to a special dungeon underneath the main map which will grant you some of the most powerful rewards in the game.
