Technically it's Thursday, but considering what Carbine's showing us for this week's WildStar Wednesday, I'm fine with having to wait an extra day. For this week we get to see our favorite cybernetic killing machine in action as Carbine gives us footage of the current Metal Maw fight.

We've followed Metal Maw almost as long as we've known about WildStar: his audience-assisted creation, skinning and texturing, rigging the model, his first steps, his grand entrance, and even some of the lore behind the beast. While this video is by no means the final encounter, it certainly helps bring everything together when you can see an actual fight starring the monster you've been reading about for months.

There's also quite a bit of information in the blog post for anyone interested in the thought process behind designing an encounter. Carbine included a series of questions the Combat Team had to answer before they could begin designing the Metal Maw encounter. What level should players be for this fight? How many players should the encounter require? How skilled do we expect them to be to win the battle?

This won't be the last we see of Metal Maw before WildStar's release. The big guy still has to go through animations and effects to give him more polish, not to mention the feedback from their internal playtesting now that Carbine's opened up playtesting to the entire company.

If you'd like to find out more about the Metal Maw fight and the questions the Combat Team had to answer before designing the encounter, head on over to the WildStar blog. What did you think of the Metal Maw fight? Are you happy with their idea for using him as a world encounter? Would you have preferred fighting him in a small group instance? Let us know in the comments.

It's the middle of the week and that means it's time for another WildStar Wednesday! This week we hear from Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney and Carbine's plans to remove some of the tedious and frustrating parts of MMOs that we've all encountered.

Jeremy covers a variety of different conveniences and modifications in his post: movement speed boosts along roads, Settlers creating new taxi points and mount vendors for low-level characters, area-based quests, optional hints for where to go for said quests, and the TweetQuests we heard about a while back.

The bulk of the post is to give us a list of examples of ways Carbine is looking to improve MMO gameplay, but we do get an insight into some of their side bonuses for adding convenience changes. In the section on movement speed on roads, Jeremy talks about how the speed boost on roads helps with time between encounters and makes mob placement easier for them. It also creates a space where players are likely to run into each other, so you might actually see other people while you're out questing.

To find out more about how Carbine is planning on clearing up the tedious parts of MMO design, head on over to the WildStar blog then come back and tell us what quality of life changes you'd like to see in WildStar. I'm not talking class or encounter design - those are their own design challenge. I'm talking about those little things like maybe how crafting/gathering works, the distance between flight points and quests, or how fast your mounts are. If you had the chance to fix one of those annoying MMO quirks, how would you do it?

It's Wednesday, so that means it's time for another WildStar Wednesday blog post. This week we step away from meeting the monsters of Nexus and the music that accompanies them. Today we hear from Lead Client Engineer Jon Wiesman about how UI modification will work in WildStar.

Jon starts off by giving us some basic crunchy details about what they'll be providing us for UI tools. It's a XML and Lua-based engine, so WoW Addon writers should be able to dive in fairly easily. After that it's storytime for a while about his struggles finding the right tool for a program he wanted to right. The purpose of this story however is not to badmouth the tools he found, but to point out a common problem with developing addons or UI modifications in most games: learning how to do so can be long, convoluted, and frustrating at best. From poor documentation to rudimentary/non-existant tools, it's a barrier to entry for most would-be addon developers.

Jon's goal is quite simple:

We'll have to wait to find out more about how Jon plans on achieving such a goal. In the meantime however, if there's any budding UI developers in the audience who would like to get involved in making addons for WildStar, be sure to watch these news posts over the next few months as Jon will be sharing information on how you can get involved in their addon program. He even promises it'll be fun (programmer fun, so YMMV).

For more information on Jon's UI philosophy or his adventures in writing a web app, head on over to WildStar's blog. I'm quite looking forward to hearing more about the addon program myself. I love modifying my UI in MMOs and, while I'm still a rookie at it, I have written some very basic addons. More documentation and cleaner tools would certainly be appreciated.

WildStar Wednesday is upon us once more! This time Carbine returns to our old friend Metal Maw to talk about the story behind the giant doom-robot-amphibian thing that will be wiping pickup groups sometime in the future.

We knew from earlier WS posts that Metal Maw was tied to the Eldan and he was the result of experiments they performed, but today's article goes into quite a bit more detail. Cybernetic enhancements, reinforced skeleton, a permanent state of aggression that's reinforced by pain from all of the modifications - the Eldan didn't cut many corners when it came to making Metal Maw a rough fight for whoever they threw him at.

For more details on what makes Metal Maw tick, head on over to the WildStar blog. Personally I'm hoping we start to see more of the Eldan's handiwork in the near future. The blog post touches on how there were a lot of failures before the creation of Metal Maw, but there's no information on said failures. Perhaps we'll see some of these early attempts in the fights before Metal Maw in whatever instance he's placed in. It would be interesting to see what consists of a failure in the Eldan's book.

It's time for another WildStar Wednesday. This week we return to the hills of Algoroc for an introduction to some of the locals we'll be encountering/hunting for loot and experience.

It's the same general format as the Northern Wilds Bestiary and Minibosses posts from last month. Each of the three gangs featured has some backstory and general info to let you know how they fit in with the Loftite trade, the local lawmen, and each other. There's also some fun facts like in the previous posts, like the Darkspur Cartel's eye for fashion or how you really don't want to be the low guy on the ladder with the Deadstar Marauders.

For more details on the various scoundrels you'll be facing off against in Algoroc, head over to Carbine's blog.

If you’ve set your alarms properly, you’ll know that we’re due for another WildStar Wednesday! Well, either that or the ship hydroponic filters need changing, but we’re pretty sure this one means it’s time for Carbine goodness. And what a visual feast they’ve delivered to us this week! The frozen wilderness of the Northern Wilds has finally given way to the green fields and rugged hills of Algoroc!

You can see from the image that Algoroc is packed full of Loftite, a blue crystal that’s recently become incredibly valuable. This meteoric rise in value has people across Nexus rushing to the region in the hope of making their fortune. If only life were that simple.

Algoroc has also become a target for unsavoury characters looking for easy pickings among the newly rich. Ruthless space pirates called the Deadstar Marauders are enslaving locals and taking over mining operations. An organised crime syndicate known as the Darkspur Cartel are looking to extort businessmen and hound out other prospectors. The lawless town of Gallow has become a haven for these types, with the fearful townsfolk calling out for aid.

It’s not just the locals that need saving - the Exile Academy of Science has been excavating the nearby Eldan ruins. The XAS archeologists managed to trigger alarms in the supposedly dormant facility, awakening a legion of Eldan security robots. While the scientists try to protect their research and deactivate the robots, their camp and their work desperately needs protection!

You can find out more about these goings-on at Algoroc, along with more fantastic screenshots over on the WildStar official site!

For this week's WildStar Wed, er Thursday, Carbine's taking us back to the studio of Lead Composer and Sound Designer Jeff Kurtenacker, this time with more than just a wall of text:

Last time we saw Jeff, we found out a little bit about WildStar's sound design philosophy. We even got the chance to download a couple tracks and listen for ourselves. For Jeff's encore visit to the WildStar blog, he brings us even more music to get us into a Nexus state of mind. Once you're done watching the video, check out Enemy Camp Battle and Rescue Mission and listen for yourselves.

It's Wednesday again and that means it's time for another WildStar Wednesday post. Last week Carbine took us on a tour through Nexus' Northern Wilds and introduced us to some of the local fauna we're likely to meet/kill for loot. The expedition into the Wilds continues this week as we're introduced to some of the minibosses we'll be encountering there.

Like last week's Bestiary post, all three miniboss entries include some background (why is there a giant nightmare bug thing in the Skeech village?), examples of attacks you may see (who would've thought the giant robot would use lasers and missiles?), and some flavor text to ponder while you're trying not to be eaten or squished by said miniboss.

To find out more about the various giant monsters/robots/etc. that you'll be hunting for loot or corpse running back to, head on over to the official blog then let us know what you think in the comments. Any in particular you like? Personally I'm interested in seeing more like the Ultrabot, but that's mostly because it's the first real piece of Dominion tech we've seen so far and I'd like to see a bit more info on who the other side is I'll be fighting for/against.

Wednesday is here, and it looks like Carbine is delivering a bunch of new information and screenshots about the creatures in the Northern Wilds area of the planet Nexus!

Carbine delivers quite a bit of new information about three of the creatures. The tantalizing information includes the basic information about how they interact with the environment, the kind of attacks you can expect to face against them, and even a warning that dancing lessons with the wildlife is a bad idea.

To get all of the juicy information and screenshots that Carbine has given us, head on over to WildStar's official blog. Also, please be careful and no dancing with the wild Girrok.

Wildstar Wednesday has arrived, and it has done so in style, riding in on the Hover Bike that Buck the Human rode on in the WildStar cinematic!

Carbine has given us several in-game screenshots that showcase the hover bike and the world of Nexus. The bike is being ridden by a wild-haired female Aurin, who looks like she means business! You'll also notice that the screenshots provide a fantastic view of the planet with exotic trees, floating chunks of soil and crystal, and what looks to be a town under construction.

To view all the screenshots that Carbine has offered up, head on over to WildStar's official site. What do you think of the new in-game screenshots? Let us know in the comments, and if anybody has one of these Hover Bikes for sale, please get me in touch with the sales rep.