What surprised the development team was that even though the PvP mode was the game's weakest link, it was also one of the most popular elements of the game. There was demand for a rock/paper/scissors-style multiplayer mode where players could jump in and have quick matches against opposing teams. Paradox North looked into what the community wanted, and the result is Magicka: Wizard Wars.
During a hands-on demo of the game, Hargelid explained that the original game's PvP mode was very unbalanced. The game had everyone starting on a level playing field, but it also gave everyone access to all the magicks. The problem with this was anyone could then endlessly spam the most powerful attacks, allowing them to either unfairly win using no skill at all, or causing a stalemate where both sides hide in corners of the map while they shower the game board with meteor strikes.
In Magicka: Wizard Wars, players have to fill a focus meter in order to access the more powerful magicks. One of the lower tiers is the power of haste, which allows a character to move quicker for a short burst of time. As players fill up their focus meter by killing enemies, they unlock the ability to summon Death — a NPC that will fight on the player's side for a short amount of time. The highest tier triggers a meteor shower, which can destroy almost everyone within the vicinity of a selected region, but it requires a full focus meter in order to be activated.
According to Hargelid, the development team has made the game more strategic by introducing capture points that also act as spawn points. In the demo Polygon played, we had to ensure we always held at least one capture point, because if we lost them all to the enemy then our team members would not be able to respawn. This led to an often frantic experience where remaining players would rush to try to capture a spawn point to ensure their survival, while the enemies ganged up on survivors to try to take them out.
"I like the tactical depth of the game — you always have to be on the lookout to understand if you have your spawn points secured or not," Hargelid said. "That means you can turn the tide at any point."During our time with the Hands free access, some matches were an on-going tug-of-war, with one side capturing all the spawn points, only to have the other side make a last-minute comeback. Other matches were over in less than five minutes when a team was wiped out and all its spawn points swiftly captured.
Magicka: Wizard Wars is due to launch this year on Windows PC and tablets. The game will be free-to-play, but the developers have not determined how players will be charged. Hargelid told Polygon that Paradox will talk to its community about what they're willing to pay for, but he assured us that the studio will not be pursuing a pay-to-win strategy.
“This department is committed to using all available resources to prevent this crime, aggressively investigate allegations and prosecute as appropriate,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in a July 18 statement announcing the changes. “We will not hide from this challenge — we will be active, open and transparent.”The effort is the latest drive to show offenders will be punished, which victim advocates and officials believe is central to stemming the tide of sex assaults. But the push must contend with a stark reality: No one was punished in about three of every four Navy cases closed in the latest fiscal year.But some are skeptical that releasing court-martial verdicts will prove a deterrent without disclosing names. Officials say the main point is to have a more transparent naval justice system that sailors can trust to come forward.
“The goal here was to show that the judicial process works, that these cases are going to trial and they are being dealt with,” said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Navy’s chief of information. “We have heard, again anecdotally, that some victims express some concerns about the names being out there because they don’t want the offender to get any more attention.”
Investigations also may need work. Of a random sampling of 195 cases from 2010, NCIS mishandled 26 of them, or 13 percent, making serious mistakes like not completing a crime scene investigation, not collecting key evidence or not interviewing witnesses, according to a Pentagon Inspector General report issued July 15. NCIS reopened 14 of the cases, according to the report.“A lot of this is about education but it’s also about trying to change their personal behavior,” said Rear Adm. Ted Carter, who until recently was head of the 21st Century Sailor office that oversees the latest counter-sex assault initiative.
Carter said the rovers would be there to watch for “anything that would be unusual,” such as drunkenness, a passed-out sailor, or a large gathering. “Just having that security there will help keep everybody in line,” Carter explained in a recent interview.The Navy’s sexual assault experts are unsure exactly why the pilots worked, but they’ve decided the dramatic gains are important enough to try everywhere to stem the mounting toll of sexual assaults that concerns lawmakers and the public. Sailors reported 773 assaults during fiscal year 2012 — a 33 percent jump over the previous year.
Top personnel officials attribute the rise in incidents to sailors reporting assaults from fiscal 2012 and previous years, which they view as evidence that the Navy’s full-court press for prevention training is encouraging victims to come forward. Nonetheless, the brass is concerned.The “overwhelming majority of both victims and offenders are junior sailors, both male and female,” said Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mark Ferguson, in a July 9 message to all admirals and commanding officers. Most of the incidents occurred after the work day and involved alcohol; half take place on base or aboard ship.
“Sexual assault ruins lives, divides teams and erodes trust,” Ferguson said in his “personal for” message. “As leaders, we must provide our sailors a responsible, professional, and safe environment in which to work and live.”Similar to college dorms, barracks will be required to have resident advisers, or RAs, to mentor and keep the peace. RAs must be first classes or above and will be trained in preventing sex assaults.
As part of the San Diego pilot, chiefs and junior officers also patrolled on-base clubs, bowling alleys and theaters that off-duty sailors frequent. There was no mention of these patrols in NAVADMIN 181/13, released July 18, and Carter emphasized that there would be no shore patrol stood up.
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