Clash of the Servers!

The fabled server merge is finally happening! The official date for the server merge will be April 8th. All of the North American servers will be coming together to one final front. This will be an operation of Epic proportions! Three operations will be conducted the weekend of the 11th through the 13th. Friday the 11th will be on the Terran Republic faction followed by the Vanu Sovereignty on the 12th and finally on Sunday the 13th will be the New Conglomerate!! All population will be consolidated, the population will surge and conflicts will be fierce! Guns, glory, Action! Now most people may say server merges show the downfall of a game, however this may not be the case. This server merge could be a resurgence breathing another breath of life for an undying game. November 20th 2012 is when this lingering titan of gaming began and has been going on for over thirteen years. Over the course of time introducing a fourth mercenary faction dubbed the "NSO" free floating to whichever faction needs the help most. New equipment and several new vehicles have been added over the lifetime of the game such as the flying behemoth The Bastion and the ground titan, The Colossus Tank. A new continent to explore on the island paradise of Oshur! Multiple variations of capture points have been added as well. We are inviting all WidowMakers new and old to come out, drop by say hi and enjoy the massive battlefront on the moon of Auraxis!!! All members who participate in this colossal event will be awarded the Planetside 2 Server Merge Medal. Its worth a shot, maybe even two, just don't land the shots in teammates, it never goes over well.

Written by Wojec

Into The Unknown!

Changes are abound for this absolutely fantastic establishment! There's an upcoming facelift for The Black Widow Company. A rebranding opportunity some may say. New name, logo, possibly website and many other things in store. Community members from the Average Joe to the Mighty Moe have given many different ideas on which direction this rebrand could take place. Some names have been tossed in the ring such as "The Crimson Company", "The Black Widow Society" and "Redacted". Many good ideas in the ring currently and the voting is currently ongoing until the 25th of March. In terms of how folks feel on the rebrand we have spoken to several members within the community about how they perceive this change. Here are a few excerpts from these members.

Tribulex:

This is a newer member to our community. He feels that the value is not in the name so much as it is in the community itself. It is an exciting opportunity for branding and to see what the community decides on for the name.

Shath:

"I don't personally care. Shath is indifferent to most things."

Snowdog:

Has stated that the name change and rebrand does not bother him. The name itself doesn't matter so much as the community and camaraderie.

Mr Jack Cole:

"Not a lot of opinion unfortunately. I am in full support of the commands initiatives to grow the community."

Gardanis:

"I think it is necessary because of the issues with gaming sites not allowing us to use our tags. Been in BWC for years and partial to the name of BWC, but I understand the point. The current name could turn into more of a problem for acronym reasons."

Parx:

"I'm used to BWC. I don't think it affects me. I believe Gardanis is right and people are always making comments about the acronym BWC tag, generally with a negative connotation. I think we need to keep the spider logo and the colors just change the name."

As you can see here folks people weighing in from all across the community on how they feel about this change. Going forward into the unknown we have many bright possibilities ahead of us. This is a prime time to make your voice heard within the community! There are 19 different names in the current running for the name change, each instilled with their own set of possibilities. These possibilities are made possible by each and every one of you! Make your voice count go and vote!

Written by Wojec

Exciting Times in MWO!

It has been an exciting time to be in BWC's Mechwarrior Company over the last couple months. PGI has hosted several events, giving players the opportunity to earn free items, in-game currency, mechs, and premium time. BWC Pilots have taken full advantage by leading daily operations, from serious to casual. Running anywhere from two to five lances a night, we have get the chance to play against other BWC members in "Brother vs Brother" matches. The added incentive, to sharpening our skills and earning bragging rights, of free loot has encouraged MWO members to show up in even greater numbers, pushing our lance count even higher. The multitude of members attending gives rise to various play styles and the occasional call for "Shenanigans" as pilots or lances will go off script and just play off the wall tactics just for fun, making our comms lively with highlights of matches, advice on mechbuilds, and general banter.

BrokenArrow, the MWO Commanding Officer, spoke about the recent surge in participation:
Since July, MWO has seen two major events centered around collecting "Loot Bags," where pilots could earn rewards based on their match score or damage dealt. These events not only boosted operation tempo but also significantly influenced attendance for each operation. During this time, 12 recruits joined our ranks, with the events playing a key role in retaining these new members. These Loot Bag events also bolstered company morale, because let's face it—who doesn't love free stuff? As the year comes to a close, PGI's annual loyalty program has added to the excitement. This program rewards players for their dedication to the game, as well as their financial contributions, throughout the year. For some of our pilots, it felt like Christmas came early, as they eagerly awaited the free mechs that the loyalty program delivered.

The time has never been better to check out MWO if you've ever had an interest. With new friends, free in-game items and mechs, and a team that is regularly on, what more can be asked for? The time is now to join in MWO's nightly gaming operations and maybe check out what more BWC has to offer new members, as well!

Written by Ciderstien

Calling Warriors of Light!

Get ready for the next adventures in the Source as your venture into the lands of Tural. Filled with arts and cultures this expansion expands into more depth with our crafter/ gatherer senses. Take on new dungeons and raids as you explore the great wonders of a new realm on the legacy passed on.

Starting with Dawntrail, get prepared for the unlock of Level 100 classes as the difficulty gets ramped up and not one but two new classes: Pictomancer and Viper. Both being DPS classes, Pictomancer takes on a caster role and was first introduced in FFVI with FFXIV being the first time it is reappearing as well as Viper being a dual wielding ninja-like melee class. Lastly, along with an entirely new adventure and story, the FFXIV dev team has completed a comprehensive graphical overhaul. Many quality of life changes have occurred such as lighting and shadows as well as creating more realistic and natural facial features. Make sure to complete your complimentary FFXIV Dawntrail benchmark test to make sure your PC is ready to go and see you fellow adventurers in the New World.

CitizenCon 2953 in Review

Well what an absolutely killer CitizenCon this year! First time we have had a full two days of content, and they jam backed those two days with a mind blowing amount of detail! As an Aussie, this poor writer wasn't able to get up at the 4:00 am start time each day, but you best believe that the moment I was able I was catching up on the stream, and since then I've rewatched the content at least half a dozen times, especially with all the high quality YouTube videos the team has been dropping of the panels!

Chris Roberts is the man that started it all, and while he's certainly been the centre of some controversy over the years, it was great to see him back on stage introducing the show on Day 1. While Chris has never really been the most polished orator, the man was clearly feeling a bit overwhelmed with the emotion of it all and what he knew his team were going to be showing to us over the following 48 hrs, as he became almost lost for words a couple of times. And he had reason to be excited!

One of the stars of the show was the Star Engine tech demo reel, which was also our initial introduction to all the hard work the team has been doing, and it was a kaleidoscope of gorgeous visual improvements, which were expanded upon further throughout the 2 days of panels which followed. The entire swath of improvements that we dove into with the team over the two days including new volumetric clouds and ground fog, with light rays shining through beautifully, dynamic fire that responds to the world around it, physically simulated water surfaces with correct illumination of objects below the surface, grime and wear build-up on your weapons, and even physically simulated blood, sweat, & tears on characters!

All of which is just scratching the surface.

But I think of the whole two day show, the break-out star attraction was the demonstration of working Server Meshing. The holy grail of Star Citizen development, that they've been working on from the beginning of the project! Seeing server meshing in action was absolutely astonishing, especially the incredible smoothness of transition as items and players were handed off from one server to the next while traversing an area. Combined with Persistent Entity Streaming (PES), which is what lets players leave objects in a location, or return to the sight of battle to find the destroyed ships for salvage, and the replication layer, which grants us live active-active failover of game servers, for zero client downtime in the event of a server crash, Server Meshing puts the final capstone on the key pillar technologies of what will make Chris's dream of the game possible, allowing hundreds, if not thousands of players to exist within the same "server" at once, with load shared across a meshed system of servers, presenting the players with absolutely seamless, loading screen free gameplay, and epic space (and ground!) battles!

It really is hard to follow up on the news of Server Meshing with just about anything else, but there really was an absolute bucketload of other content, way too much to do justice to here.

So, I'll finish up by saying we got a cool new Scout variant for the Drake Cutlass, along with a teased 3rd variant which we'll hear more on later. The RSI Zeus MkII was announced in 3 flavours, all of which look incredible, and this writer wants them all! And last but certainly not least, the Ship team dived into an apology and explanation of the holdups and setbacks they've had to overcome in recent times, but showed how they have been able to push through them, build from them, and are now well on track to deliver not one, not two, but three big RSI ships to us over the next 12 months; the Polaris, the Galaxy, and the Perseus! This is made possible through the asset sharing that occurs among ships from the same brand, allowing them to "batch produce" ships of the same manufacturer in parallel, greatly accelerating the speed with which they can be delivered into player hands. And finally, we got a ship silhouette slideshow teasing all of the ships we can expect to see in the 'verse within the next 12 months, which included a few unfamiliar silhouettes which have had fans arguing over what they could be since!

Wrapping up, CitizenCon 2953 absolutely knocked it out of the park. We had heartfelt apologies from the team where they were needed, amazing updates on features we didn't even know they'd been working on, and announcements of key technologies being completed. And the reactions from the crowd at the show echoed across the world.

Oh, and not to bury the lead, but Squadron 42 is now feature complete! Which also means many of the staff whose attentions were diverted to it to get that done, are now moving their focus back to Star Citizen!

If the team over at Cloud Imperium can deliver even half of what was shown in the next 12 months, 2024 is going to be an amazing year for fans of the game.

This fan is certainly hyped!