Lego Universe

Lego Universe
LEGO Universe was a massively multiplayer online game developed by NetDevil released on October 26, 2010, with an early opening (October 8, 2010) for LEGO "Founders", [5]  which consisted of users who pre-ordered the game. It was globally distributed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. [6]  Its release was delayed from original estimates of 2009, [7]  late November 2008, [8]  and mid-2008. [9]  The game was available in English and German. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">[10] <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.200000762939453px;text-align:start;"> The servers were shut down permanently on January 30, 2012. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Zam_10-0" style="line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">[11]

[edit] Plot
<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">LEGO Universe takes place in an alternate universe populated by LEGO minifigures.The premise is that years ago, a team of four minifigures went on a great journey to seek the last essence of pureImagination: Doctor Overbuild, Duke Exeter, Hael Storm, and Baron Typhonus. After having found it on the mysterious planet Crux, the greedy tycoon of the expedition, Baron Typhonus, was pulled into the source, fusing with it to create a maelstrom of chaotic dark energy. However, even though Doctor Overbuild plugged the hole, the stress caused Crux to explode into thousands of other worlds. After the incident, the explorers decided to form their own factions, Doctor Overbuild creating the Assembly, Duke Exeter forming the Sentinels and Hael Storm leading the Venture League. The factions worked together and created the Nexus Force in order to destroy the Maelstrom and its minions. A few years later, The Venture Explorer, a ship carrying new recruits is being attacked by the Maelstrom. The player, aboard the ship, escapes to Avant Gardens with the aid of Sky Lane. Here, a disaster involving Paradox, a fourth faction which studies the Maelstrom, has infected Avant Gardens with Maelstrom and released a beast called the Spider Queen. After travelling through the world and discovering the Spider Queen's location, the player destroys the Spider Queen at the Block Yard and claims their first Property, where they can place collected models and bricks. Now, members (not free to play) can travel to Nimbus Station, where they choose which faction to join. From there, the player can travel to other worlds like Forbidden Valley or Gnarled Forest.

[edit] Factions
<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">There are four factions, only one of which a player can join. Each Faction has three specialties that have 3 different ranks and gear. There are two valiant weapons per faction which can be bought at the Nexus Tower. The Sentinels are combat based, using heavy weapons and armor. Their specialties include Knight, Samurai, and Space Ranger. The Venture League is based on exploring, utilizing combinations of strong weapons and fast attacks. Their specialties include Daredevil, Buccaneer, and Adventurer. The Assembly focuses on building and creating, using gear that builds weapons. Their specialties include Engineer, Summoner, and Inventor. The Paradox relies on studying the Maelstrom, and using it against itself, mainly using ranged attacks. Their specialties include Space Marauder, Sorcerer, and Shinobi.

[edit] Venture Explorer
<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">After creating your minifigure, you came to the Venture Explorer. It acted as a tutorial for any newcomers, teaching the basics of running, jumping, and smashing. You ultimately built a rocket and headed off to Avant Gardens with help from Sky Lane. Also, members were able to participate in a "Return to the Venture Explorer" with difficult enemies such as Hammerlings, Corrupted Sentries, and Elite Dark Spiderlings; though this was not part of any tutorial.

[edit] Avant Gardens
<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">This is the second world players will visit. It introduces newcomers to the basic mission scenarios and gets them prepared for what they will soon come to face. In addition to the storyline missions, there are side missions and bonus activities such as survival and foot races. Players with memberships will see this as the first zone to see tamable pets in. The Maelstrom minions here are easy, such as the Stromling, Stromling Mech, and the Dark Spiderling, born from the Block Yard's boss, the Spider Queen. The mini-game here is Avant Garden Survival, here you must survive against Stromlings, Dark Spiderlings, Stromling Mechs, and other enemies more difficult to destroy. Avant Gardens is where you can tame the Doberman, Triceratops and Buffalo Pets. The two properties where you can build your creations in Avant Gardens are Block Yard and Avant Grove.

[edit] Nimbus Station
<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">Nimbus Station acts as the Hub for members and is the third world players will visit. Here, you can access most of the other worlds. After the seventh mission, you must select one of the 4 factions (The Assembly, the Sentinels, the Venture League or Paradox.) Here you can enter yourself in a race against other minifigures in the Vertigo racetrack. You can also participate in the Battle of Nimbus Station, an event similar to survival in Avant Gardens but incorporating a wave system and taking in Nimbus Station's past, fighting off stronger enemies (such as Stromling Invader). Members will enjoy many numerous amounts of features in Nimbus Station, including more pet choices. Also there is a rocket pad to Frostborough near Christmas, the portal to Starbase 3001, and the Club Door. The properties here are Nimbus Rock and Nimbus Isle. The tameable Pets here are Robot Dog and Skunk Pets.

[edit] Pet Cove
<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">Pet Cove is the key to everything about Pets. It is primarily a hub for players with memberships to learn how to tame Pets and do stunts with their Pets. Obviously, this will be the zone where a large variety of Pets will be available. If you are in one of the Factions you can also tame your faction Pet here.

[edit] Gnarled Forest
<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">Gnarled Forest is a pirate infested forest-styled zone in which players can experience the shift from beginning features to regular features. Minifigures will learn many new abilities here and unlock many new weapons. This is the first zone that introduces players to guns. Being the child-friendly company it is, LEGO has made fun and ticklish names for these weapons such as the "Plunger Gun." The pets that you could get in this world are a tortoise, a boar, a crocodile, an elephant, and a hermit crab.

[edit] Forbidden Valley
<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">Forbidden Valley is unlocked at the same time as Gnarled Forest. It is the first world themed on ninjas.

[edit] Nexus Tower
<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">Nexus Tower is the hub of everything informational in terms of factions. Here one can accept missions from the faction leader and interact with other things within Nexus Tower. The last piece of the Imagination Nexus is kept here.

[edit] Crux Prime
<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">Crux Prime was the largest of the planetary fragments created in Crux's explosion, and is positioned directly opposite of the Maelstrom. Here can you meet many enemies you have met before but in stronger form along with bosses of all varieties (such as Stromling Invaders), and also a myriad of Ninjago Skeletons, straight from the Ninjago Monastery, attempting to mine Maelstrom Crystals. There are only 7 characters that the player can interact with in Crux Prime. Enemies also included the 'leaders' of types of enemy (e.g. Butterscotch, the dragon leader). All leader enemies show up in a slightly different colour from other Crux Prime invaders. The only tameable pet here was the Skeleton Dragon which was tamable as part of the main story line on Crux Prime.

[edit] Ninjago Monastery
<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">The Ninjago Monastery was a new LEGO Universe world added to the game within a new build of the game on September the 20th, 2011. It saw the addition of the LEGO Theme, Ninjago to the game.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">The world in comparison to the other worlds was one of the largest. It included the Ninjago Monastery, Skeleton Battlefields and the Ninjago Caves. Players upon arriving followed a chain of missions to learn all four elements of Spinjitsu, from the four ninjas in their temples within the monastery, and help defend the Monastery from skeletons. With the world also came a new crafting feature known as game cooking. A vendor in the Ninjago Monastery traded a special consumable item in exchange for common consumable items found around Lego Universe. Aside from the main mission chain that was to lean Spinjitsu, there were several other sub-plot mission chains available to players. The Ninjago Monastery world included many new daily missions.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">The Ninjago Monastery introduced new puzzles that required two players to complete a certain task that would allow them to proceed to a new area. Two player puzzles were shown to the player by a "two minifigure heads icon" shown above any two player puzzle. A new feature that allowed the "purification" of new maelstrom weapons into purified weapons was added. This purification feature was introduced in a mission chain. Many of the mission chains including the main plot involve the Skeleton bosses in the Ninjago Caves. These Skeleton Bosses were taken from the LEGO Ninjago toy line. One of these Boss Skeletons, Frakjaw, was within the minigame: "Battle against Frakjaw!" and is involved at the end of the main mission chain.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:start;">As with other worlds, The Ninjago Monastery came with its own models and items. The Ninjago Monastery also included an "Earth Dragon Pet" that can be tamed after completing certain missions. The Ninjago Monastery was the most recent major addition to LEGO Universe. A battle against Lord Garmadon in the fire temple was going to be added into the game, but this project was canceled as a result of the server shutdown.

Credits
Lego Universe Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Universe

Brickipedia: http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/LEGO_Wiki

All information, citation, and reference can be found on these Wiki's.