Oct 13, 2023

Guild Wars 2 - Anet Richie

Since 2017, we here at ArenaNet have taken great joy in supporting Children's Miracle Network Hospitals by participating in the Extra Life gaming marathon. Last year we even had the honor of being named Extra Life Partner of the Year—a reflection of the way the entire Guild Wars 2 community rallies around the cause. We're thrilled that this is part of our studio's tradition, and we're excited to be back for another year!

What is Extra Life?

During the annual Extra Life marathon, teams and individuals from many gaming communities stream games for twenty-four hours to raise funds in support of Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, a network of 170 nonprofit children's hospitals throughout the United States and Canada. Donations pay healthcare costs for critically ill and injured children not covered by health insurance or Medicaid, help hospitals purchase pediatric medical equipment, and fund disease research. Children's Miracle Network Hospitals provide 32 million treatments to children every year thanks to events like Extra Life.

Team ArenaNet has raised over $855,500 in donations for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals since we began participating seven years ago. Let's see how much we can add to that total together in 2023!

Game Day: November 3

Our 24-hour marathon livestream begins at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7) on Friday, November 3 and lasts until noon Pacific Time (UTC-7) on Saturday, November 4 on the official Guild Wars 2 Twitch channel. This year our streaming setup will be different: rather than everyone going into the ArenaNet office to stream, we're embracing the distributed nature of our workforce and streaming from our various home setups. That also gives us an opportunity to invite more folks to join our schedule, so you may see some members of our ArenaNet Partner Program or other folks participating. Our event may not look exactly the same this year, but Team ArenaNet is excited to see how much our community can raise for Extra Life in 2023!

During the marathon streaming session, we'll be giving away Guild Wars 2 gem codes to viewers for every $1,000 raised! If we hit the $12,500 donation milestone, we will reveal an epic Metal Legion music video created by our developers. And at $25,000, ArenaNet will match the donations up to that point, leapfrogging our donation total to $50,000 for this amazing cause!

All players can celebrate in the game well before our Game Day stream commences with a fixed Extra Life bonus enhancement from October 31 to November 7. This effect provides a 50% bonus to magic find and experience gain, as well as +30% WvW and PvP reward-track progress.

Join Team ArenaNet

There's more than one way to make a difference and help us with our mission. Besides donating directly, everyone is invited to be part of Team ArenaNet. To join, visit the official Extra Life website and choose "Team ArenaNet" as your team when you sign up.

If you'd like to create your own team, we invite you to join the ArenaNet Super Team. When you sign up on the official Extra Life website, choose "Create a Sub Team." Your team will still have its own page, members, and fundraising goals, but you'll be recognized on the ArenaNet Super Team's leaderboards and the funds you raise will contribute to the overall Super Team total.

Once you join Team ArenaNet, all donations will contribute to our overall donation total. You don't have to livestream Guild Wars 2 to team up with us. You can stream a game of your choice, or raise funds by telling your friends, family, and colleagues how they can donate to support Extra Life. Spread the word!

We couldn't do this without our amazing community, so thank you in advance, and we'll see you on November 3 for Game Day!

Oct 13, 2023

Memory Journal - The First Lucid Dreamer

Being and Becoming - Harry Fink

“Reaching, gasping, wishing, longing
For the pageant brought to sight,
Vain I watch’d the gold orbs thronging
Round celestial poles of light.
Madly on a moonbeam ladder
Heav’n’s abyss I sought to scale,
Ever wiser, ever sadder,
As the fruitless task would fail…” - H.P. Lovecraft

The following is a recount of this world’s events as experienced by the Lucid Dreamer

The faces of the ones who strapped this diver suit on you and stranded you beneath the waves feel just beyond the periphery of your vision. Their faces are full of a potent mix of loathing and misery. Your resistance to the voice you have all heard is a condemnation of their iniquity. They sank you with an anchor, but their own guilt weighed heavier.

As you plummeted deeper into the depths, those faces were but a fleeting dream, unlike the endless golden eyes that watch your every move or the disembodied voice that rattles your skull with sweet temptations. While you languished beneath the waves, you could only hear that voice and the current. The voice presented you with a tantalizing promise of not only freedom in this watery purgatory, but also your every desire, if you only ask. Yet when that golden eye opened after you resisted the voice’s offer, it felt as though you yourself awakened, and one nightmare was traded for another.

Desperately, you clawed your way out of a watery grave and into the sunken burial place of a once prosperous kingdom that now groans with the cries of its citizens answering the disembodied voice. The kingdom sinks deeper, buried under the weight of each desire cried out being made manifest by that tempting voice.

The voice beckons still, perched upon your shoulder, always whispering even after your continued refusal. But the watchful gaze of those golden eyes around every corner reassures you of your resolve.

Did they seal you in a golden casket or provide you with the armor to turn any temptation, claw, or blade? That is for you to decide.

This was but a fragment of a memory trapped within the Collective Dream. Expect to receive more of these fragments in the future. Until that occurs, perhaps there is something else you wish to learn before continuing your voyage?

Cast those questions into the deep, and perhaps it will answer you as well…
(aka leave us a comment and let us know what you want to see in future devlogs!)

Farewell for now, Dreamer

Dive into these communication channels for all the latest devlogs, news, + more:
Discord
Twitter

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1917990/Being_and_Becoming/

Oct 13, 2023

🎟️ Ticket please! Passenger #06 - Mr Rudolf Andrenyi 👨

Agatha Christie - Murder on the Orient Express - Florian

Bonjour Detectives,

The Orient Express is set to depart on October 19th! To ensure you have the best travel experience possible, we will proceed to the ticket verification of our esteemed passengers.

Passenger #06 - Mr Rudolf Andrenyi

Rudolf Andrenyi is handsome, aristocratic, six feet in height with broad shoulders and slender hips. He is fiercely devoted to and protective of his beautiful young wife. His speech is composed of clipped sentences with a slight Hungarian accent.

Set in 2023, Agatha Christie – Murder on the Orient Express retells this classic story for a modern audience. Faithful to the central plot, additional elements have been added to the story to surprise and delight even the most dedicated fans of the Queen of Crime!

🚂 Wishlist Agatha Christie - Murder on the Orient Express now!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1904790/Agatha_Christie__Murder_on_the_Orient_Express/

📬 Stay connected!

Microids Lyon Twitter - Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - TikTok - Discord

Oct 13, 2023

Earner's Hour

Sphere 3 - Evanesca

🍄Some people collect the ears of their rivals, and others collect flowers, ore and other useful resources to create something beautiful. Remember them the next time you stock up on potions or look for crafted armor. A competition for the best earner is announced!

This Saturday from 21:00 to 22:00 (UTC +3) the Hour of the Earner will take place!

Collect the maximum number of orchid fruits within the specified time and become an honorary member of the artisans guild.

The reward will not be long in coming:
📦3 days of premium account
📦Craftsman's Potion (1 day)
📦5 strong potions of protection
📦5 resurrection scrolls
📦Powerful magic pen
📦5 rank 2 strengthening crystals

All this will be yours!

Only resources received from the resource point during the specified period of time will be counted. Resources previously mined or obtained through exchange with other players will not be counted.

Results will be published within three working days after the event ends.

Good luck!

Oct 13, 2023

Earthless Demo tips and tricks!

Earthless - sheldon_team17

Attention all captains! We hope you're enjoying playing through the Steam Next Fest demo for Earthless! Travelling across the cosmos is no easy task though, and danger awaits any brave enough to try! To help you out in your search for a habitable planet, we've put together some tips and tricks.

1. Use Your Ship's Predictive AI

The most powerful tool in your arsenal isn't a Tactical Strike card. It's your ship's Predictive AI module that displays what your enemies will do on their next turn. Press TAB to engage this feature, and you'll see blue lines displaying where enemy ships will move, whether they'll attack you, and how much damage those attacks will deal.

But wait! There's more!

The Predictive AI can be used to see how enemies will react to your actions. For example, when moving your ship on the grid, hold TAB before selecting a square to see how enemies will respond. The same goes for playing cards! Try selecting a basic Missile Launch and hovering your mouse over an enemy within range to see if their next move will change based on if you attack them.

PRO TIP: about to take some damage from a Lusk Grunt and don't have any Shields? Try attacking them instead! Many Lusk units have an ability to replenish their shields when depleted. Using the Predictive Ship AI, you can see if one is about to attack you. Try targeting it with an attack card and keep holding TAB to see if the incoming damage will force the Lusk unit to change to a defense manoeuvre instead.

2. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Every time you complete three events / nodes on the Star Map, you unlock one of Earthless' most important — but easy to underestimate — features: recycling a card. This removes a card from your deck, which effectively increases your odds of drawing more important, powerful cards. You should be recycling as often as you can.

The recycle menu can be found by entering the Manufacturing Screen (the wrench and screwdriver icon on the bottom left of your Command Console). An indicator will tell you how many events / Star Map nodes you have to complete before Recycling is available.

Deckbuilder veterans will know this well, but removing unwanted cards is vital to building an unstoppable deck. There's a lot of nuance on how to choose which cards to discard, but it's typically a safe choice to remove the basic Missile Launch and Shields Up cards as you earn more powerful attack and defense cards.

3. Be Careful Of Your Heat

Each time you move you generate Heat, and your ship can store a maximum of 4 Heat points. Once you're maxed out, you'll either need to end your turn or use a card like Vent Heat to reduce your Heat level so you can move again.

But be careful when running your engines hot. Acquiring more than 4 Heat will add Overheat cards to the top of your Draw Pile.

When you have an Overheat card in your hand, you'll take damage for every action you do until you spend 1 Energy to play that card. It can seriously disrupt your strategy, so always keep an eye on your heat and manage it effectively. This is especially important for the Clarke-class ship in the Next Fest demo, which has limited options for reducing Heat early on.

4. Don't Ignore your Artifacts and Upgrades

Depending on where you venture in the Star Map, you're likely to start picking up some valuable resources that can either augment your cards or let you craft entirely new ones. Do not let them sit in your inventory. Use them. Artifacts let you augment cards, like increasing the range of Gunnery cards, and while it might be tempting to sit on an Artifact in hopes that you'll get a powerful card to make it even more powerful. But, more often than not, using an Artifact on whatever you have available is the better option (especially in the demo when you're only exploring one Star Map). Likewise, don't forget to spend your resources to craft Artifacts and cards from the schematics you might collect from Salvage Sites!

5. Be Wary of How Choices Will Affect Your Crew

As you venture further through the Star Map, you'll come across several difficult decisions and events that demand your attention. As the captain of your ship, it falls on you and no-one else to solve these dilemmas. Be careful to read them carefully and think about your decisions before picking. Each choice will improve relations with certain members of your crew and degrade relations with others. Every one onboard has their own opinions, after all! As you improve relations with each crew member, you'll receive certain bonuses. Be sure to manage these crew relationships properly, to maximise the benefits you receive in battle.

Play the Earthless demo now:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2058960/Earthless/