There is just so much I could be writing about WAR right now, yet despite having lots to say, there’s a bit of a problem… Over the years I’ve written a lot of posts about the things I see as WAR’s problems and how I think the game could be improved to the point that it starts reaching some of its potential. The problem is that everything I’ve said before still stands. Nothing has really changed and everything I’ve recommended before is just as relevant today. Everything that WAR needs is everything that I’ve been saying it needs for bloody ages, so what to do? Do I expand on those thoughts, repeating myself?
I can of course write about the good things that happen in WAR, but at the same time I don’t want to be over hyping what is an enjoyable, but deeply flawed game. Likewise, I don’t want to just write about the game’s problems, I want to be constructive and offer solutions. Those deep flaws are NOT beyond redemption. Though at the same time, to continue thinking and writing about how WAR could be moved forward, will mean all the while being stuck having to watch nothing or even the opposite happen. Which will be like banging my head against a brick wall.
I was talking to a friend the other day who quit WAR when RIFT came out and as of yet has not returned. He was saying how he’d like to play WAR again, but if he did return he’d be just fighting in exactly the same RvR lakes as he was at launch. No new zones have been added, in fact there’s not really any new content and as a result there’s nothing new to look at. Sure things have been tweaked, but nothing has actually been added, nothing has been expanded. Land of the Dead doesn’t count because of its gated entry and general irrelevance, and Skaven are such a half arsed implementation that they’re not interesting at all.
He went on to say it would be frustrating for him to return, seeing nothing but the same scenery as he did at launch, yet all the time knowing there are still huge masses of wasted landscape in the main zones (the majority of land in each zone in fact) and there’s even 4 entire Tier 4 zones that remain completely irrelevant and completely unused. Not adding new content is one thing, but wasting what you have got is unforgiveable. He then pointed out that this is all the same stuff I’ve been going on about for ages, but nothing changes. So he's staying in RIFT for now, they get new content all the time there.
And he would be right on all of that. We’ve had tweaks, lots of tweaks in fact, but nothing significant enough for an ex-WAR player to see and think “OMG! Now THAT is worth resubbing for!”. WAR fans can point at the city changes, renown levels and new armour, but we would be kidding ourselves. Nothing has ever appeared from Mythic that is bold or big enough to tempt people like him back. And he's not a MMO 1 month and leap type bloke, he stuck with WAR for 2 years, he's also far from unique, loads of people I talk to say the same things. Unfortunately the closest we’ve got to major improvements, new content and true expansion is just hot air in blog posts from the community. Thing is, we’re drying up, we’ve pretty much said it all. There’s not many bloggers writing regularly about WAR at all anymore and those that do are probably in a similar situation to me, pondering on if they should continue repeating themselves and smashing their face into Mythic’s wall of nowt.
Showing posts with label expansions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label expansions. Show all posts
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Hot air in a windy city
As you should have heard by now from Mykiel and Werit, this year Mythic are making an appearance at Gamesworkshop’s next big event in the US; Gamesday Chicago. Some are of the belief that this will be to herald big news for WAR, something of the scale of a true expansion or 3rd faction.
I wouldn’t get too excited.
Obviously I would be delighted if it was something of such magnitude, but I just can’t believe that it will be. I think it is far more likely to be about the Sigmar’s Tide event and we get a single new dungeon or instance, or I suppose it could possibly be the return of Fortresses, but whatever it is I really don’t think it’s going to be that exciting in the grand scheme of things. I’ll just settle for something fun and a little bit new, as to expect much more is just asking for a big letdown should nothing truly significant turn up.
I don’t mean to sound negative, just trying to stay grounded, but with WAR’s current lack of funding, backing and advertising, it’s best to aim your hopes low and then anything else is a bonus.
Of course if Mythic were to deliver some proper OMG big news, then it would be a coup of epic proportions and I will pray at their chaos altar. Though just the aforementioned bonus would be nice.
I wouldn’t get too excited.
Obviously I would be delighted if it was something of such magnitude, but I just can’t believe that it will be. I think it is far more likely to be about the Sigmar’s Tide event and we get a single new dungeon or instance, or I suppose it could possibly be the return of Fortresses, but whatever it is I really don’t think it’s going to be that exciting in the grand scheme of things. I’ll just settle for something fun and a little bit new, as to expect much more is just asking for a big letdown should nothing truly significant turn up.
I don’t mean to sound negative, just trying to stay grounded, but with WAR’s current lack of funding, backing and advertising, it’s best to aim your hopes low and then anything else is a bonus.
Of course if Mythic were to deliver some proper OMG big news, then it would be a coup of epic proportions and I will pray at their chaos altar. Though just the aforementioned bonus would be nice.
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Does Cataclysm matter for WAR?
It can’t have escaped your notice that WAR’s RvR Pack and 1.4 are coming out around the same time as World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm expansion. This is not totally dissimilar to when Wrath of the Liche King (WotLK) arrived shortly after WAR’s launch, but this time I think the impact will be far less.
Back in 2008 loads of people from other games (presumably primarily WoW) jumped ship to try out the much hyped Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. For a range of reasons the game didn’t live up to a lot of people’s expectations and I think for a lot of people it was just too far from the WoW comfort zone they’d been living in. I remember a guildie who quit in the early days telling me he just couldn’t get used to playing a MMO where sometimes no matter what you do, you can’t win. He’d got so used to PvE encounters from other games that he expected to win, all the time. Alas for him, PvP and particularly RvR just aren’t like that.
Not that this was the only reason people left. At the other end of the scale were those people who were expecting WAR to be Dark Age of Camelot with Orcs were and that just didn’t turn out to be the case. And there was no doubt all manner of reasons in-between, so when WotLK came out there was a mass exodus from WAR back to WoW.
Since then WAR has improved dramatically. It’s far from the finished, perfect game we all want, but it is hugely different in performance, balance and general game play. As a result a while back the population stabilised and then started to grow. Yes certain servers are still struggling, but others are getting busier and while I’ve not been able to get any subscriber numbers from Mythic, they have told me the population is growing. Of course you may like to dispute that, but I can only speak about what I see on Karak Norn and Mythic’s word tallies with that. On Norn recently we’re even getting the Supply Lines function kicking in when a zone gets too busy. So where Iron Rock is struggling, other places like Karak Norn, Karak Azgal and Badlands are getting insanely busy.
Anyway I’m starting to go on a tangent and I shall now rein myself back in… The point I was getting to is the population has stabilised in a general sense. If you’re playing WAR right now its most likely because you like PvP and RvR more than PvE. Perhaps you could say WAR is now a niche game for those of us that are primarily PvPers, but don’t want to play EVE for whatever reason. So when WoW’s latest expansion comes out with its excellent PvE, but crap PvP and non-existant RvR, will many WAR players actually care? If you wanted to play a PvE focussed game, wouldn’t you already be doing that?
I know I don’t care about WoW’s expansion; I had my fingers burnt with WotLK. I went and tried it and found myself unable to hit max level due to boredom with the nonstop PvE. Not that I think WoW is a bad game, oh no. I think it’s excellent at what it is good at and is focused on, that being PvE. It’s just not for me anymore. As I talk to other people this seems a pretty common point of view.
So this time I don’t think WoW’s expansion will have that big an impact on WAR. And the same goes for the other MMOs coming out. They have different focuses to WAR and surely if that’s what you want out of your MMO, after 2 years of WAR’s crazy rollercoaster, wouldn’t you have already left?
From my friends I only know a couple of people that are talking about Cataclysm, everyone else is looking ahead to the RvR Pack. As such I suspect that this time for WAR, much like how it won't impact on EVE, the WoW expansion won't have such a cataclysmic effect.
Back in 2008 loads of people from other games (presumably primarily WoW) jumped ship to try out the much hyped Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. For a range of reasons the game didn’t live up to a lot of people’s expectations and I think for a lot of people it was just too far from the WoW comfort zone they’d been living in. I remember a guildie who quit in the early days telling me he just couldn’t get used to playing a MMO where sometimes no matter what you do, you can’t win. He’d got so used to PvE encounters from other games that he expected to win, all the time. Alas for him, PvP and particularly RvR just aren’t like that.
Not that this was the only reason people left. At the other end of the scale were those people who were expecting WAR to be Dark Age of Camelot with Orcs were and that just didn’t turn out to be the case. And there was no doubt all manner of reasons in-between, so when WotLK came out there was a mass exodus from WAR back to WoW.
Since then WAR has improved dramatically. It’s far from the finished, perfect game we all want, but it is hugely different in performance, balance and general game play. As a result a while back the population stabilised and then started to grow. Yes certain servers are still struggling, but others are getting busier and while I’ve not been able to get any subscriber numbers from Mythic, they have told me the population is growing. Of course you may like to dispute that, but I can only speak about what I see on Karak Norn and Mythic’s word tallies with that. On Norn recently we’re even getting the Supply Lines function kicking in when a zone gets too busy. So where Iron Rock is struggling, other places like Karak Norn, Karak Azgal and Badlands are getting insanely busy.
Anyway I’m starting to go on a tangent and I shall now rein myself back in… The point I was getting to is the population has stabilised in a general sense. If you’re playing WAR right now its most likely because you like PvP and RvR more than PvE. Perhaps you could say WAR is now a niche game for those of us that are primarily PvPers, but don’t want to play EVE for whatever reason. So when WoW’s latest expansion comes out with its excellent PvE, but crap PvP and non-existant RvR, will many WAR players actually care? If you wanted to play a PvE focussed game, wouldn’t you already be doing that?
I know I don’t care about WoW’s expansion; I had my fingers burnt with WotLK. I went and tried it and found myself unable to hit max level due to boredom with the nonstop PvE. Not that I think WoW is a bad game, oh no. I think it’s excellent at what it is good at and is focused on, that being PvE. It’s just not for me anymore. As I talk to other people this seems a pretty common point of view.
So this time I don’t think WoW’s expansion will have that big an impact on WAR. And the same goes for the other MMOs coming out. They have different focuses to WAR and surely if that’s what you want out of your MMO, after 2 years of WAR’s crazy rollercoaster, wouldn’t you have already left?
From my friends I only know a couple of people that are talking about Cataclysm, everyone else is looking ahead to the RvR Pack. As such I suspect that this time for WAR, much like how it won't impact on EVE, the WoW expansion won't have such a cataclysmic effect.
Monday, 27 September 2010
Bootae interviews Andy Belford at Gamesday UK
Gamesday UK was a great day out, we got lots of solid news about WAR and there was a truckload of WAR EU players in attendance at the main event. However the highlight was I got absolutely drunk as a skunk with Andy and a collection of people from the EU servers. Well I say a collection of people, there was one representative from Azgal, one infamous Norn player and a bunch of people from my alliance that went out on the beers. Andy proved to be a quality bloke, a good laugh and a seasoned drinker, important to fit in over here which he did admirably.
I could tell you all about the many, many hilarious and at times totally bizarre events that happened, but there’s just too much mentalness to type. Let’s just say it featured a copious amount of beer, a real life pirate, about 100 extremely drunk and glammed up women from a Hairdressers convention and a very rude south African lady. Oh and I got lost for an hour at 3am trying to find my hotel and almost decided to sleep alongside a motorway, thankfully that worked out ok though and I did find the hotel...
Anyways, thanks to an epic hang over and delayed trains, it’s taken ages to get back home and meant I missed breaking the main news of the day. I won't repost what has already been covered very well on both Bruglir’s blog and WAR Aura, be sure to check out the news AND then come back here for further goodies... However we also found out a lot of little bits and had many interesting debates through the night, so there maybe some more things I post about as my brain gradually recovers.
I did however get an interview with Andy. Questions were obviously all focused on the new changes and the future of WAR.
Bootae- First thing I was wondering about, you know you talked about the resource gathering from the BOs, is that going to be the current ones so you’d have multiple resource gathers moving around at once?
Andy- It’s gonna be all the current BOs, so there will be four resource nodes open at any point and they will be capturable at any point in time. So you’ll have to actively defend them all, if you want to hold them all then you’ve got to spread out and defend them.
Bootae- And defend the resource gathers themselves?
Andy- Exactly.
Bootae- So you’ll have multiple groups of people all over the zone guarding or attacking different things.
Andy- Yup. Because even if the resource runner is moving, the resource node can still be captured. So you’ll need to protect the resource node, the runner and probably your warcamp as well.
Bootae- You mentioned the resource runners being upgradeable. Does that reset if their node is lost?
Andy- No, that’s based on what rank your keep is.
Bootae- So now we’ll never again have a situation where you’re attacking both keeps, because we’ll always start off owning one and have to capture the other, while managing and controlling everything else in the zone.
Andy- Yup.
Bootae- The campaign itself then, this continues with the one zone open in each pairing, that locks, moves onto next zone, etc? We won’t have multiple zones open per pairing?
Andy- That remains the same. We had considered changing that, considering revamping how that works actually, but we decided it would be too radical a departure from the way things currently work and that it may actually having a negative effect on the game for people that were comfortable with the way the campaign progresses, but not happy with the zone locks. So we thought we’d change how zone locking works first, see how successful it is, see how it goes over with the players and then if we need to continue with adjusting the campaign mechanism we’ll go from there. But it’s part our approach incremental changes, it’s how we approach our development. We change things incrementally one step at a time.
Bootae- Regarding the Fortresses and the revamped campaign, is there a planned way they’re coming back into the new system or is it still very much up in the air?
Andy- We have it in our mind yeah, but we’re not set in stone or prepared to talk about their implementation just yet. It’s definitely one of those things on the forefront of what we want to do, the reintroduction of fortresses, however it’s not something we doing right now. That’s not to say the next patch set afterwards wouldn’t reintroduce them. Is that possible? It’s possible if we have all these changes go according to plan, everything works out brilliantly then if something falls into place with the fortresses that allows us to reintroduce them in a way that we think will be fun and dynamic then yes, we’ll move forward on that. So while it continues to be a priority right now, no we don’t have any definite plans.
Bootae- The next bit then for the campaign, the new Skaven zone… How does that fit in? The general idea in the community is about a tunnel system linking up all the zones, is that anywhere near the truth or is it more like a Land of the Dead entry?
Andy- You’ll find out this month.
Bootae- Moving on to Skaven, are Skaven something you can log in and play whenever you want or is there like a gated access of some form?
Andy- It is gated and it ties into the new Skaven area. How exactly it ties into the new area we’re not discussing right now.
Bootae- So will you be able to have both factions playing Skaven at the same time?
Andy- Yes.
Bootae- The four classes mentioned today, are there more to be revealed?
Andy- No, that is it.
Bootae- So no Stormvermin or things like that. It seems like the Skaven are being very much built around being a component of the new siege system.
Andy- The Skaven are there to enhance the ORvR experience. To make ORvR more fun and more compelling.
Bootae- So it’s not a third faction as such as we were thinking before, its more enhancement for the existing factions?
Andy- That’s correct.
Bootae- So Order players can have Skaven fighting alongside them?
Andy- Don’t worry, we got approval from GW (Gamesworkshop) on that.
Bootae- Hah, yeah you know people are gonna go for you on that.
Andy- Well the thing is if you read the Gotrek and Felix novels then there’s actually a point where the Skaven work with Empire. Even though the most recent edition of the Warhammer playbook has grouped them with Destruction, they really are very mercenary.
Bootae- They’re out for themselves.
Andy- Yeah, they’re out for themselves yeah. As long as you have enough warpstone to satisfy their craving, they’ll do whatever they can to get that warpstone. Including stabbing you in the back.
Bootae- So the RvR packs are one thing, but it sounds like from all this that it’s really 1.4 that needs to be in place to enable all of this.
Andy- Right now 1.4 is a component of the RvR packs, I would say that.
Bootae- You’ve talked before about how we’ll be getting these packs more often than a game would usually get full on expansions. So in future are we always going to see a major 1.4 style patch accompanied by a pack? So there will be the free patch and then the extra purchaseable components like the packs alongside that?
Andy- We’re not gonna stop free updates to the game, that’s not gonna stop. There’s always gonna be free updates to the game, we’re always going to be improving content, we’re always going to be making things better and some of that just happens to coincide with the RvR Pack. So yes there will always continue to be free improvements for players, regardless of if they purchase the RvR pack.
Bootae- So this current timing of pack and patch is just a timing thing.
Andy- Yeah, it’s kinda the logistics of the development schedule.
Bootae- PvE pack? Now I don’t give two monkeys about PvE really…
Andy- Neither do we.
Bootae- …but some people will do. So is the future of PvE pretty much out of the window?
Andy- The immediate future. You know, we’ve embraced the fact that we are an RvR game. Some people say it’s niche, some people say its you know, it is what it is, but people play Bioware Mythic games because they like to kill other players. That’s what we’re good at, that’s what we do. We are dedicated to making our RvR experience the best it can be.
Bootae- So thoughts of dungeons and lairs gone?
Andy- No, no, no. There’s actually a lot of lairs that are attached to the RvR lakes. Like the one in Chaos Wastes near the north keep. It’s kinda hard to get there, it’s like a jumping puzzle to get up.
Bootae- Ah yeah like the one in Norsca.
Andy- Personally I would love to see some of the lairs and stuff repurposed into RvR fights, I think that would be very cool.
Bootae- Like the invadeable Land of the Dead style?
Andy- yeah.
Bootae- We were talking earlier about a PQ in tier 1 Orc/Dwarf, where for whatever reason it’s RvR enabled. That’s probably the best PQ in the entire game, but then it doesn’t happen anymore.
Andy- We should have done more of those. We should have continued to build upon the PvP foundation interspersed with the PvE. Unfortunately that one PQ is one of the only places in the game where that happens with a PQ, up until the city revamp of course. So you know, it’s lessons learnt, no development team gets everything right, no development team is perfect. And I know a lot of people like to point at warhammer online and bash warhammer online, it’s the cool fashion. But you know, we’re still here, we’re still going, we’re still developing and delivering a visceral, heart-pounding experience for our players. And you know, our community is right now in a better place than its been in the last 2 years. The players, while they’re critical and while they still let us know what they think, they really do love the game and you can see it, you can see the passion.
People sometimes like to attach the word failure to our game, but you know we are not a failure, we are profitable, we are making money for the studio, we are still developing new content and we’re doing something that a lot of games are afraid to do, you know we’re saying yeah we made a lot of mistakes when we first launched the game and we’re gonna take 12 months, 16 months, we’re gonna take however long it takes to go back and fix these things.
My recording went a bit dodgy from here and I’ve got a horrible hangover clouding my memory, but I asked a cheeky question about sub numbers and while Andy wouldn’t divulge the numbers, he did confirm that subscription numbers are increasing. We also talked about the amount of people in one zone and Andy mentioned recently Badlands saw over 700 people in one zone, 500 of them attacking a keep. I also learnt a few things that I've been asked not to blog about, but lets just say I'm very positive about the next few months and the future of WAR.
And that was that for the interview, Andy had to head off to do yet another presentation to the masses and I went and joined the mass debate amongst WAR players about all the announcements. I'll post thoughts and stuff over the next few days.
So thanks to Andy for his time, the beers, chicken wings and a bloody comedy gold night.
I could tell you all about the many, many hilarious and at times totally bizarre events that happened, but there’s just too much mentalness to type. Let’s just say it featured a copious amount of beer, a real life pirate, about 100 extremely drunk and glammed up women from a Hairdressers convention and a very rude south African lady. Oh and I got lost for an hour at 3am trying to find my hotel and almost decided to sleep alongside a motorway, thankfully that worked out ok though and I did find the hotel...
Anyways, thanks to an epic hang over and delayed trains, it’s taken ages to get back home and meant I missed breaking the main news of the day. I won't repost what has already been covered very well on both Bruglir’s blog and WAR Aura, be sure to check out the news AND then come back here for further goodies... However we also found out a lot of little bits and had many interesting debates through the night, so there maybe some more things I post about as my brain gradually recovers.
I did however get an interview with Andy. Questions were obviously all focused on the new changes and the future of WAR.
Bootae- First thing I was wondering about, you know you talked about the resource gathering from the BOs, is that going to be the current ones so you’d have multiple resource gathers moving around at once?
Andy- It’s gonna be all the current BOs, so there will be four resource nodes open at any point and they will be capturable at any point in time. So you’ll have to actively defend them all, if you want to hold them all then you’ve got to spread out and defend them.
Bootae- And defend the resource gathers themselves?
Andy- Exactly.
Bootae- So you’ll have multiple groups of people all over the zone guarding or attacking different things.
Andy- Yup. Because even if the resource runner is moving, the resource node can still be captured. So you’ll need to protect the resource node, the runner and probably your warcamp as well.
Bootae- You mentioned the resource runners being upgradeable. Does that reset if their node is lost?
Andy- No, that’s based on what rank your keep is.
Bootae- So now we’ll never again have a situation where you’re attacking both keeps, because we’ll always start off owning one and have to capture the other, while managing and controlling everything else in the zone.
Andy- Yup.
Bootae- The campaign itself then, this continues with the one zone open in each pairing, that locks, moves onto next zone, etc? We won’t have multiple zones open per pairing?
Andy- That remains the same. We had considered changing that, considering revamping how that works actually, but we decided it would be too radical a departure from the way things currently work and that it may actually having a negative effect on the game for people that were comfortable with the way the campaign progresses, but not happy with the zone locks. So we thought we’d change how zone locking works first, see how successful it is, see how it goes over with the players and then if we need to continue with adjusting the campaign mechanism we’ll go from there. But it’s part our approach incremental changes, it’s how we approach our development. We change things incrementally one step at a time.
Bootae- Regarding the Fortresses and the revamped campaign, is there a planned way they’re coming back into the new system or is it still very much up in the air?
Andy- We have it in our mind yeah, but we’re not set in stone or prepared to talk about their implementation just yet. It’s definitely one of those things on the forefront of what we want to do, the reintroduction of fortresses, however it’s not something we doing right now. That’s not to say the next patch set afterwards wouldn’t reintroduce them. Is that possible? It’s possible if we have all these changes go according to plan, everything works out brilliantly then if something falls into place with the fortresses that allows us to reintroduce them in a way that we think will be fun and dynamic then yes, we’ll move forward on that. So while it continues to be a priority right now, no we don’t have any definite plans.
Bootae- The next bit then for the campaign, the new Skaven zone… How does that fit in? The general idea in the community is about a tunnel system linking up all the zones, is that anywhere near the truth or is it more like a Land of the Dead entry?
Andy- You’ll find out this month.
Bootae- Moving on to Skaven, are Skaven something you can log in and play whenever you want or is there like a gated access of some form?
Andy- It is gated and it ties into the new Skaven area. How exactly it ties into the new area we’re not discussing right now.
Bootae- So will you be able to have both factions playing Skaven at the same time?
Andy- Yes.
Bootae- The four classes mentioned today, are there more to be revealed?
Andy- No, that is it.
Bootae- So no Stormvermin or things like that. It seems like the Skaven are being very much built around being a component of the new siege system.
Andy- The Skaven are there to enhance the ORvR experience. To make ORvR more fun and more compelling.
Bootae- So it’s not a third faction as such as we were thinking before, its more enhancement for the existing factions?
Andy- That’s correct.
Bootae- So Order players can have Skaven fighting alongside them?
Andy- Don’t worry, we got approval from GW (Gamesworkshop) on that.
Bootae- Hah, yeah you know people are gonna go for you on that.
Andy- Well the thing is if you read the Gotrek and Felix novels then there’s actually a point where the Skaven work with Empire. Even though the most recent edition of the Warhammer playbook has grouped them with Destruction, they really are very mercenary.
Bootae- They’re out for themselves.
Andy- Yeah, they’re out for themselves yeah. As long as you have enough warpstone to satisfy their craving, they’ll do whatever they can to get that warpstone. Including stabbing you in the back.
Bootae- So the RvR packs are one thing, but it sounds like from all this that it’s really 1.4 that needs to be in place to enable all of this.
Andy- Right now 1.4 is a component of the RvR packs, I would say that.
Bootae- You’ve talked before about how we’ll be getting these packs more often than a game would usually get full on expansions. So in future are we always going to see a major 1.4 style patch accompanied by a pack? So there will be the free patch and then the extra purchaseable components like the packs alongside that?
Andy- We’re not gonna stop free updates to the game, that’s not gonna stop. There’s always gonna be free updates to the game, we’re always going to be improving content, we’re always going to be making things better and some of that just happens to coincide with the RvR Pack. So yes there will always continue to be free improvements for players, regardless of if they purchase the RvR pack.
Bootae- So this current timing of pack and patch is just a timing thing.
Andy- Yeah, it’s kinda the logistics of the development schedule.
Bootae- PvE pack? Now I don’t give two monkeys about PvE really…
Andy- Neither do we.
Bootae- …but some people will do. So is the future of PvE pretty much out of the window?
Andy- The immediate future. You know, we’ve embraced the fact that we are an RvR game. Some people say it’s niche, some people say its you know, it is what it is, but people play Bioware Mythic games because they like to kill other players. That’s what we’re good at, that’s what we do. We are dedicated to making our RvR experience the best it can be.
Bootae- So thoughts of dungeons and lairs gone?
Andy- No, no, no. There’s actually a lot of lairs that are attached to the RvR lakes. Like the one in Chaos Wastes near the north keep. It’s kinda hard to get there, it’s like a jumping puzzle to get up.
Bootae- Ah yeah like the one in Norsca.
Andy- Personally I would love to see some of the lairs and stuff repurposed into RvR fights, I think that would be very cool.
Bootae- Like the invadeable Land of the Dead style?
Andy- yeah.
Bootae- We were talking earlier about a PQ in tier 1 Orc/Dwarf, where for whatever reason it’s RvR enabled. That’s probably the best PQ in the entire game, but then it doesn’t happen anymore.
Andy- We should have done more of those. We should have continued to build upon the PvP foundation interspersed with the PvE. Unfortunately that one PQ is one of the only places in the game where that happens with a PQ, up until the city revamp of course. So you know, it’s lessons learnt, no development team gets everything right, no development team is perfect. And I know a lot of people like to point at warhammer online and bash warhammer online, it’s the cool fashion. But you know, we’re still here, we’re still going, we’re still developing and delivering a visceral, heart-pounding experience for our players. And you know, our community is right now in a better place than its been in the last 2 years. The players, while they’re critical and while they still let us know what they think, they really do love the game and you can see it, you can see the passion.
People sometimes like to attach the word failure to our game, but you know we are not a failure, we are profitable, we are making money for the studio, we are still developing new content and we’re doing something that a lot of games are afraid to do, you know we’re saying yeah we made a lot of mistakes when we first launched the game and we’re gonna take 12 months, 16 months, we’re gonna take however long it takes to go back and fix these things.
+++++++++++
My recording went a bit dodgy from here and I’ve got a horrible hangover clouding my memory, but I asked a cheeky question about sub numbers and while Andy wouldn’t divulge the numbers, he did confirm that subscription numbers are increasing. We also talked about the amount of people in one zone and Andy mentioned recently Badlands saw over 700 people in one zone, 500 of them attacking a keep. I also learnt a few things that I've been asked not to blog about, but lets just say I'm very positive about the next few months and the future of WAR.
And that was that for the interview, Andy had to head off to do yet another presentation to the masses and I went and joined the mass debate amongst WAR players about all the announcements. I'll post thoughts and stuff over the next few days.
So thanks to Andy for his time, the beers, chicken wings and a bloody comedy gold night.
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Before and after(ish) the news
BEFORE
I’ve started writing this on Tuesday, before the special news from Mythic has been revealed. I figured I’d start this post before and then conclude it afterwards, that way I can write my expectations without being tainted by knowledge of what we’re actually getting. So what do I want from today’s announcements, what would I be happy with and what would be a disappointment?
I want the miracle of a third faction, but I know that can’t happen, so a more rational desire is required. I want new playable races for the existing factions, Skaven and anything from Lizardmen/Bretonnians/Wood Elves. I want a fourth racial pairing, with larger RvR lakes and new PQ variants on battle objectives, like in the new city sieges. I want improved siege warfare and to be further encouraged not to just bloody zerg everything. I want LOTS of new content and the spark of life that brings.
I would be happy with new playable races. Whilst any genuine new content would be a good thing for WAR and a positive sign for the future, if I’m honest with myself I know that anything less than new playable races will be a disappointment. And not just to me, an awful lot of the people I talk to are desperate for this too. I personally know a load of people not playing WAR that are waiting for playable Skaven before they will consider returning to or starting WAR.
AFTER (I think?)
OK time to continue writing this post! I say “I think” above because yesterday and today’s news was in both cases so brief and vague that I still don’t have any real idea what we’re getting. It sounds like Skaven will be playable, but perhaps only as a LotRO style monster race (ugh), or maybe it’s a way of getting a third faction on equal terms with everyone else quickly, but who knows? It could be something great, it could be utter shite. No way of knowing.
Renown rank 100? I’d have preferred to see an alternate advancement system like champion or mastery levels, but I’m not overly fussed either way and it’s good to see a new incentive for RR80s no matter what.
Andy has commented on the bioware forums with a little bit more info, but basically it just says "we're not going to say much else for now". There was one thing that I don't like the sound of:
"We currently plan on offering the RvR Pack with multiple purchase options which we're calling Power, Progression and Personality. I'm not ready to go into details on what exactly that means (yes, evil at work, however I just can't right now) but the focus is to allow you to purchase what you want and build your own experience with the new content."
Hmmm, the problem with saying this backed up with no clarifcation is that it smells like the old "pay more to be better than other people" crap that certain (generally unpopular in the west) MMOs use. This really, really, HUGELY worries me. Is this something that will base RvR balance on the size of your wallet? Will I be basically having to pay extra for patches? Paid for DLC? God no.... I'm struggling to think of anything good that this could mean. Of course it may well not be like that at all, but with this zipped mouth policy what else is there to go on?
I do know that the future of WAR is not what I wanted, but is it something I’ll be happy or disappointed with? I have no clue. I also know that I’m utterly bored with vagueness and uncertainty and I'm completely bloody gobsmacked that they've flown people all the way to Germany to reveal not much and then say we can't tell you anything. It's just so pointless. Unless there's some cunning master plan that I'm just not getting...??? Hopefully more news and real interviews will be revealed over the next few days, but I'm not convinced and as you can probably tell, I really don't like this half-arsed news lark.
Instead of filling me with hype and OMFG buttock quivering excitment, this Gamescom crap has just drained my enthusiasm and I feel a state of apathy and resignation incoming. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone on this.
pfft DLC f*****g w*** bubble ****arse.
edit! Gonna quote Siberwulf from Going Rancid "When you tell the world you have a big announcement to make, and that big announcement turns out to be “we have more info coming!” people generally get irked"
I’ve started writing this on Tuesday, before the special news from Mythic has been revealed. I figured I’d start this post before and then conclude it afterwards, that way I can write my expectations without being tainted by knowledge of what we’re actually getting. So what do I want from today’s announcements, what would I be happy with and what would be a disappointment?
I want the miracle of a third faction, but I know that can’t happen, so a more rational desire is required. I want new playable races for the existing factions, Skaven and anything from Lizardmen/Bretonnians/Wood Elves. I want a fourth racial pairing, with larger RvR lakes and new PQ variants on battle objectives, like in the new city sieges. I want improved siege warfare and to be further encouraged not to just bloody zerg everything. I want LOTS of new content and the spark of life that brings.
I would be happy with new playable races. Whilst any genuine new content would be a good thing for WAR and a positive sign for the future, if I’m honest with myself I know that anything less than new playable races will be a disappointment. And not just to me, an awful lot of the people I talk to are desperate for this too. I personally know a load of people not playing WAR that are waiting for playable Skaven before they will consider returning to or starting WAR.
AFTER (I think?)
OK time to continue writing this post! I say “I think” above because yesterday and today’s news was in both cases so brief and vague that I still don’t have any real idea what we’re getting. It sounds like Skaven will be playable, but perhaps only as a LotRO style monster race (ugh), or maybe it’s a way of getting a third faction on equal terms with everyone else quickly, but who knows? It could be something great, it could be utter shite. No way of knowing.
Renown rank 100? I’d have preferred to see an alternate advancement system like champion or mastery levels, but I’m not overly fussed either way and it’s good to see a new incentive for RR80s no matter what.
Andy has commented on the bioware forums with a little bit more info, but basically it just says "we're not going to say much else for now". There was one thing that I don't like the sound of:
"We currently plan on offering the RvR Pack with multiple purchase options which we're calling Power, Progression and Personality. I'm not ready to go into details on what exactly that means (yes, evil at work, however I just can't right now) but the focus is to allow you to purchase what you want and build your own experience with the new content."
Hmmm, the problem with saying this backed up with no clarifcation is that it smells like the old "pay more to be better than other people" crap that certain (generally unpopular in the west) MMOs use. This really, really, HUGELY worries me. Is this something that will base RvR balance on the size of your wallet? Will I be basically having to pay extra for patches? Paid for DLC? God no.... I'm struggling to think of anything good that this could mean. Of course it may well not be like that at all, but with this zipped mouth policy what else is there to go on?
I do know that the future of WAR is not what I wanted, but is it something I’ll be happy or disappointed with? I have no clue. I also know that I’m utterly bored with vagueness and uncertainty and I'm completely bloody gobsmacked that they've flown people all the way to Germany to reveal not much and then say we can't tell you anything. It's just so pointless. Unless there's some cunning master plan that I'm just not getting...??? Hopefully more news and real interviews will be revealed over the next few days, but I'm not convinced and as you can probably tell, I really don't like this half-arsed news lark.
Instead of filling me with hype and OMFG buttock quivering excitment, this Gamescom crap has just drained my enthusiasm and I feel a state of apathy and resignation incoming. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone on this.
pfft DLC f*****g w*** bubble ****arse.
edit! Gonna quote Siberwulf from Going Rancid "When you tell the world you have a big announcement to make, and that big announcement turns out to be “we have more info coming!” people generally get irked"
Monday, 26 July 2010
New WHFB rule book confirms Order vs Destruction groupings
This month saw the release of the new Warhammer Fantasy Battle rulebook, only its 8th edition in 25 years of Warhammer, so a big deal for gamers. If WAR was your introduction to the Warhammer world and you’re tempted to learn a bit more about the background and lore of Warhammer, the latest book is well worth purchasing.
Whilst perusing the book one thing I spotted of interest for WAR games is a proper confirmation by Gamesworkshop of which races are aligned to Order and Destuction. With Mythic being locked pretty tightly into following the official lore and needing agreement for changes from Gamesworkshop, this new section in the rulebook (which Mythic will be well aware of) sets the boundaries for new races that may one day make an appearance in WAR. Whilst each of these races can fight each other, I suspect this official grouping into Order and Destruction pretty much rules out a third faction in any form.
This is the official breakdown as detailed in the new WHFB book:
Order
High Elves
Dwarfs
Empire
Wood Elves
Bretonnia
Lizardmen
Destruction
Warriors of Chaos
Orcs & Goblins
Dark Elves
Beastmen
Skaven
Vampire Counts
Daemons of Chaos
Non-aligned forces
Ogre Kingdoms
Tomb Kings
What else is interesting with these groupings is that there are 6 Order and 6 Destruction races that could feasibly be made playable (Daemons of Chaos are quite simply not an option for many reasons). As such this could, in theory at least, mean Mythic have the option of 3 expansions that add a new playable race to each side from the yellow highlighted races above. Lots of possibilities there, should Mythic be in a position to take advantage of them.
And perhaps Ogre Kingdoms for a future Land of the Dead style zone? I hadn’t considered that as an option myself before, but there’s no reason why not.
Anyways, whatever may or may not happen in the future, this official grouping solves a few forum debates about alignments.
Whilst perusing the book one thing I spotted of interest for WAR games is a proper confirmation by Gamesworkshop of which races are aligned to Order and Destuction. With Mythic being locked pretty tightly into following the official lore and needing agreement for changes from Gamesworkshop, this new section in the rulebook (which Mythic will be well aware of) sets the boundaries for new races that may one day make an appearance in WAR. Whilst each of these races can fight each other, I suspect this official grouping into Order and Destruction pretty much rules out a third faction in any form.
This is the official breakdown as detailed in the new WHFB book:
Order
High Elves
Dwarfs
Empire
Wood Elves
Bretonnia
Lizardmen
Destruction
Warriors of Chaos
Orcs & Goblins
Dark Elves
Beastmen
Skaven
Vampire Counts
Daemons of Chaos
Non-aligned forces
Ogre Kingdoms
Tomb Kings
What else is interesting with these groupings is that there are 6 Order and 6 Destruction races that could feasibly be made playable (Daemons of Chaos are quite simply not an option for many reasons). As such this could, in theory at least, mean Mythic have the option of 3 expansions that add a new playable race to each side from the yellow highlighted races above. Lots of possibilities there, should Mythic be in a position to take advantage of them.
And perhaps Ogre Kingdoms for a future Land of the Dead style zone? I hadn’t considered that as an option myself before, but there’s no reason why not.
Anyways, whatever may or may not happen in the future, this official grouping solves a few forum debates about alignments.
How many Mythic devs does it take to make an expansion?
As people talk about WAR’s future, or lack thereof according to some posters, you often read comments about how Mythic couldn’t afford to make an expansion, that the company is too small now. I don’t know about this, it seems to be packed with assumptions and I’ve never seen any real evidence to confirm either way. So the thing I’m wondering about this is this…
Back in the old DAoC days Mythic brought out a lot of expansions, all of these were of considerable size and impact, but one of the earlier ones in particular stands out: New Frontiers. Mythic completely changed the ENTIRE ORvR landscape, the zones had the same names, but the graphics, layouts, structure and how they worked were utterly transformed. Which leads me to the following question:
Was Mythic a smaller company with fewer resources than today when they made the huge "New Frontiers" expansion for DAoC?
I suspect they were smaller then, but I don’t know for sure. Certainly this was before WoW launched and MMOs truly exploded and if Wikipedia is to be believed (don’t laugh :P) subscription numbers were around 250,000. Mythic now have UO, DAoC and WAR, but subscription numbers are not available. Not that sub numbers alone would indicate if a company has more or less money to throw around. Of course in the past they also didn’t have EA’s backing, nor Bioware’s involvement, which I presume puts them in a better place today. Of course those comments are just based on my own more positive assumptions...
So I wonder, have the naysayers assumed too much or is Mythic really in a worse place than in its regular expansion making past? Could Mythic surprise a lot of people and deliver what many consider impossible? I've heard a lot of interesting stuff recently, stuff I can't confirm and as such don't want to post, but if rumours and "stuff" are to be believed, Mythic have got something up their sleeve and it smells of warpstone…
Unless its all bollocks and we're doooooomed! DOOOOOOOOOOMED! Need more rats for the doom wheel!
Back in the old DAoC days Mythic brought out a lot of expansions, all of these were of considerable size and impact, but one of the earlier ones in particular stands out: New Frontiers. Mythic completely changed the ENTIRE ORvR landscape, the zones had the same names, but the graphics, layouts, structure and how they worked were utterly transformed. Which leads me to the following question:
Was Mythic a smaller company with fewer resources than today when they made the huge "New Frontiers" expansion for DAoC?
I suspect they were smaller then, but I don’t know for sure. Certainly this was before WoW launched and MMOs truly exploded and if Wikipedia is to be believed (don’t laugh :P) subscription numbers were around 250,000. Mythic now have UO, DAoC and WAR, but subscription numbers are not available. Not that sub numbers alone would indicate if a company has more or less money to throw around. Of course in the past they also didn’t have EA’s backing, nor Bioware’s involvement, which I presume puts them in a better place today. Of course those comments are just based on my own more positive assumptions...
So I wonder, have the naysayers assumed too much or is Mythic really in a worse place than in its regular expansion making past? Could Mythic surprise a lot of people and deliver what many consider impossible? I've heard a lot of interesting stuff recently, stuff I can't confirm and as such don't want to post, but if rumours and "stuff" are to be believed, Mythic have got something up their sleeve and it smells of warpstone…
Unless its all bollocks and we're doooooomed! DOOOOOOOOOOMED! Need more rats for the doom wheel!
Thursday, 8 July 2010
A speculative summer for WAR
As we saw in the last producer’s letter, Mythic has big news that they want to be shouting from the rooftops, but for whatever reasons they can’t and we’ve got to wait until the end of summer to hear it. So the obvious question and something there will be much speculation about, is what could it be?
WAR goes Free to play? No chance whatsoever. I will be absolutely bloody gob-smacked if it was this, shortly before I quit the game. I don’t consider this as an even vaguely realistic option for WAR; this is not some PvE grind fest where we would actually want to buy vanity items from some pony cash shop.
Expansion? My money is firmly and without doubt on this as the big news. Anything else would be lame and a let down of epic proportions, so the real question is what would an expansion bring to WAR? I think there are a few options, varying in likelihood and split into two major groupings.
It could be either a free “Live” expansion like Land of the Dead, or a full on paid expansion. We may even get both, it just depends how much and what Mythic has in the pipeline. It’s worth making some distinctions here, as there are some things that it would be a bit cheeky to add as a paid expansion and should instead come as free live expansions or in patches. I think these are the options:
Live expansion/patch
Revamped Fortresses.
The four missing cities.
A new Land of the Dead style zone.
Paid expansion
Playable third faction.
NPC controlled third faction.
New races for the existing factions.
Lets look at these individually…
Live Expansions/patches
Revamped Fortresses
We already know this is coming. I’m expecting this to be patched in sometime over the next few months, probably as part of the 1.4 patch. As such this being the big announcement, while possible, would make no sense. We already know its coming for certain.
The four missing cities
I’ve gone blank on where, but I’m sure I saw an interview recently where Carrie was asked about the cities and she responded very briefly but with a glint in here eye, if such a thing is possible in text form… Perhaps it was just my imagination? Regardless, this for me is a no brainer and is a live expansion just waiting to happen. The gameworld was built with 6 cities in mind and work was done on them so it’s not like totally starting from scratch. Also they could easily slot into the campaign in a number of ways, could help spread people around the world more and would add major and dramatic new content. I’ve seen footage of the Dwarf city from early beta and whilst it was in a fairly basic stage visually, you can see how awesome it would have been.
A new Land of the Dead style zone
It could happen, there’s a wealth of options in the Warhammer world, but I think this shouldn’t be done yet. As the series of posts Biggsie and I are releasing demonstrates, there is so much wasted landscape already; surely it would make more sense to use that better? As a thought, the side zones like West Praag, Cinderfall, etc, perhaps they could be turned into Land of the Dead type areas? The main problem with this alone is it just wouldn’t be enough.
Paid Expansions/patches
Playable third faction
Probably the best, yet by far the biggest and most difficult thing that Mythic could do. My head tells me this is not going to happen, I think it will be the new playable races for existing factions. Everything sensible tells me that that is what we will get. It’s just I’ve got this strange little inkling that a playable third faction is on the cards, a little nagging sensation, like my spider sense tingling. It’s probably just foolish and overly optimistic hope taunting me, but hmmm, no! No it just can’t be. Despite it’s potential awesomeness and with the right moves it being perfectly possible, it’s simply too big, too complicated and probably seen as far too risky.
NPC controlled third faction
If Skaven are introduced and they are not playable then in gaming terms this would be the biggest self-own since, well… actually quite recently, as this year people in the UK voted in the conservative party and we’re now governed by smarmy bastards who don’t give a toss if you don’t speak posh. Oh well done everyone, well bloody done, epic sodding fail on a national scale. Despite everything they said, we are getting cutbacks on pensions, care for the elderly/disabled, hospital and police and you’re surprised? Ahh but rich people are getting richer by default while David “never worked a day in his life” Cameron knocks one out over a picture of Margaret Thatcher. Oh shock horror. Learn from history for crying out loud… well I suppose you can’t, what with the libraries closing and all.
Uhm sorry non UK readers, bit of a rant tangent… I’ll stop myself getting further distracted. As you’ve probably guessed, with me being of sound mind and body, I really don’t like my new government or this PvE faction as an option for WAR. People have been asking for playable Skaven since before launch, so to introduce them as unplayable would be incredibly stupid. Undead however… that’s got some potential, but the PvE would still be a concern, WAR doesn’t need a return to the infamous RvE days.
New races for the existing factions
This is what I think will happen. Skaven for Destruction and Wood Elves for Order. Or possibly a Bretonnian/Wood Elf combination... Hmmm that could work really well you know. Questing Knight, Wardancer, Waywatcher and Damsel. Hadn’t thought of that before, interesting, not perfect lore wise, but workable. Skaven are a doddle to make, they’ve actually got so many viable options for careers that the only tough bit is deciding which not to use.
So…. Skaven join the forces of Destruction and unleash the Red Plague, which threatens everything. With their lands under threat the Bretonnians and/or Wood Elves join the war alongside the existing forces of Order. A new racial pairing is introduced that goes from Bretonnia/Loren to one of the major Skaven cities (but not Skavenblight). Underground zones and tunnel systems like in Dark Age of Camelot? Yes please!
So there you have what I think the options are and what I think will happen. What do you think? Anything I’ve not thought of?
WAR goes Free to play? No chance whatsoever. I will be absolutely bloody gob-smacked if it was this, shortly before I quit the game. I don’t consider this as an even vaguely realistic option for WAR; this is not some PvE grind fest where we would actually want to buy vanity items from some pony cash shop.
Expansion? My money is firmly and without doubt on this as the big news. Anything else would be lame and a let down of epic proportions, so the real question is what would an expansion bring to WAR? I think there are a few options, varying in likelihood and split into two major groupings.
It could be either a free “Live” expansion like Land of the Dead, or a full on paid expansion. We may even get both, it just depends how much and what Mythic has in the pipeline. It’s worth making some distinctions here, as there are some things that it would be a bit cheeky to add as a paid expansion and should instead come as free live expansions or in patches. I think these are the options:
Live expansion/patch
Revamped Fortresses.
The four missing cities.
A new Land of the Dead style zone.
Paid expansion
Playable third faction.
NPC controlled third faction.
New races for the existing factions.
Lets look at these individually…
Live Expansions/patches
Revamped Fortresses
We already know this is coming. I’m expecting this to be patched in sometime over the next few months, probably as part of the 1.4 patch. As such this being the big announcement, while possible, would make no sense. We already know its coming for certain.
The four missing cities
I’ve gone blank on where, but I’m sure I saw an interview recently where Carrie was asked about the cities and she responded very briefly but with a glint in here eye, if such a thing is possible in text form… Perhaps it was just my imagination? Regardless, this for me is a no brainer and is a live expansion just waiting to happen. The gameworld was built with 6 cities in mind and work was done on them so it’s not like totally starting from scratch. Also they could easily slot into the campaign in a number of ways, could help spread people around the world more and would add major and dramatic new content. I’ve seen footage of the Dwarf city from early beta and whilst it was in a fairly basic stage visually, you can see how awesome it would have been.
A new Land of the Dead style zone
It could happen, there’s a wealth of options in the Warhammer world, but I think this shouldn’t be done yet. As the series of posts Biggsie and I are releasing demonstrates, there is so much wasted landscape already; surely it would make more sense to use that better? As a thought, the side zones like West Praag, Cinderfall, etc, perhaps they could be turned into Land of the Dead type areas? The main problem with this alone is it just wouldn’t be enough.
Paid Expansions/patches
Playable third faction
Probably the best, yet by far the biggest and most difficult thing that Mythic could do. My head tells me this is not going to happen, I think it will be the new playable races for existing factions. Everything sensible tells me that that is what we will get. It’s just I’ve got this strange little inkling that a playable third faction is on the cards, a little nagging sensation, like my spider sense tingling. It’s probably just foolish and overly optimistic hope taunting me, but hmmm, no! No it just can’t be. Despite it’s potential awesomeness and with the right moves it being perfectly possible, it’s simply too big, too complicated and probably seen as far too risky.
NPC controlled third faction
If Skaven are introduced and they are not playable then in gaming terms this would be the biggest self-own since, well… actually quite recently, as this year people in the UK voted in the conservative party and we’re now governed by smarmy bastards who don’t give a toss if you don’t speak posh. Oh well done everyone, well bloody done, epic sodding fail on a national scale. Despite everything they said, we are getting cutbacks on pensions, care for the elderly/disabled, hospital and police and you’re surprised? Ahh but rich people are getting richer by default while David “never worked a day in his life” Cameron knocks one out over a picture of Margaret Thatcher. Oh shock horror. Learn from history for crying out loud… well I suppose you can’t, what with the libraries closing and all.
Uhm sorry non UK readers, bit of a rant tangent… I’ll stop myself getting further distracted. As you’ve probably guessed, with me being of sound mind and body, I really don’t like my new government or this PvE faction as an option for WAR. People have been asking for playable Skaven since before launch, so to introduce them as unplayable would be incredibly stupid. Undead however… that’s got some potential, but the PvE would still be a concern, WAR doesn’t need a return to the infamous RvE days.
New races for the existing factions
This is what I think will happen. Skaven for Destruction and Wood Elves for Order. Or possibly a Bretonnian/Wood Elf combination... Hmmm that could work really well you know. Questing Knight, Wardancer, Waywatcher and Damsel. Hadn’t thought of that before, interesting, not perfect lore wise, but workable. Skaven are a doddle to make, they’ve actually got so many viable options for careers that the only tough bit is deciding which not to use.
So…. Skaven join the forces of Destruction and unleash the Red Plague, which threatens everything. With their lands under threat the Bretonnians and/or Wood Elves join the war alongside the existing forces of Order. A new racial pairing is introduced that goes from Bretonnia/Loren to one of the major Skaven cities (but not Skavenblight). Underground zones and tunnel systems like in Dark Age of Camelot? Yes please!
So there you have what I think the options are and what I think will happen. What do you think? Anything I’ve not thought of?
Thursday, 1 July 2010
June Producer's Letter reviewy thingywingy
Yesterday we got to see the latest producer’s letter and as such, today is the day when the Internet starts picking it apart, reading too much into things, being overly critical and all the usual RAGE! HAPPY! RAGE! lark.
In an attempt not to write a monstrous wall of text and considering you’ve probably already read it after I linked yesterday, I won’t quote the whole thing, just bits I feel particularly need it. Which is really only the very first paragraph, it’s an interesting statement dripping with potential joy or disappointment, depending on your general outlook on WAR.
“Through these communications I’ve emphasized how we listen to the community and take your feedback seriously while planning the future of WAR. For the most part, the “P-Letter” (as I like to call it) is intended to be a short term look at the next version or two, giving you a look forward at the months to come. However, it’s very clear that there is a lot of desire to hear about long term planning. We hear these requests loud and clear, and it is our desire to give you a better sense of WAR’s long term plan by the end of summer. Our detractors like to make fun of us for “being really excited” and “itching to tell you about” some “really cool things” (yes, we read the snarky posts), and in this case we want to shout it from the rooftops…but not just yet.”
Some people have chosen to read this as “we acknowledge what you say, but we’re still not saying anything, so like whatever...”. I think that is more than a little harsh. I’ve been at the forefront of calling for proper and solid news for the future of WAR and it seems to me that the time is ripe to do so. However I understand that there may well be reasons, that I am unaware of, that prevent Mythic from saying anything until a certain point. Actually if you think about what's coming out over the next year from Blizard who love to shaft other MMO news releases, betas, etc (poor FF got it this week), perhaps Mythic are right to be cautious. What the above statement does do is confirm that there are major developments in the pipeline beyond the ORvR campaign improvements we’re starting to see now, certainly “shout it from the rooftops” doesn’t allude to something small and crappy.
Everyone, who isn’t being negative for the sake of it, will have read that as meaning there will be an expansion announcement made at the end of summer. Mythic must know we’ll do this and they’ve dropped clues elsewhere (“its Red, a Plague and probably a portent”, etc), so this latest comment will have been a calculated decision to tease us more. As such my no doubt unsurprising prediction is at the end of summer we will see announcement of the Red Plague expansion. Of course this leads to all manner of questions about what the expansion will be (Skaven obv, but how/what/where?) and the big question of when actually is the end of summer? That last one has a very varied answer depending on what country you live in and which form of measurement you sign up to, ranging from the beginning of August to late September… So we’re waiting a couple of months at least for the big news.
Moving on… There is mention of the EU players transferring from GOA to Mythic, no shock there and it’s not dwelled on too much, which makes sense as plenty has been said already.
As the letter starts to focus on 1.3.6 we get a few interesting bits of news. First there’s word of a dev diary on its way to explain in more detail about the new armour appearance system. Not much to say about this, other than I look forward to hearing the details. Now we start getting to the stuff that will get the speculation going. In the letter it refers to the ORvR changes coming in 1.3.6 as “the less significant portion of the work”, and it’s pretty clear that Mythic have some big changes in the pipeline for ORvR, so what pray tell are the more significant changes going to be? Larger RvR lakes? Missing Cities? Fortresses? A change to the zone locking system? Hopefully we’ll hear more soon.
Defenders of the Mailbox… Ahh bless, so you’ll have to go into the RvR lakes and risk being attacked while you’re busy AFK leeching renown. Of course I’m sure you’ll find somewhere to hide, but now we should at least be able to hunt you down and slice up your AFK buttocks.
Carrie also talks about “Against all Odds”; a new system that gives you bonus XP, renown and influence when you are outnumbered in a RvR area. Having pondered and discussed this a bit, it seems that this is one of those changes that has a lot of potential, but I’m not entirely sure how it will actually play out on live. It doesn’t encourage you to fight away from your faction’s zerg, it encourages you to fight in a different zone to your zerg. That is an important distinction. For example say Destruction outnumber Order and everyone is fighting in the Chaos Wastes, if I chose to lead my group away from the zerg and try to fight Order in different parts of the zone, then Against all Odds does nothing for my small group because we’re in the same zone as the zerg. However if lead us to a different zone, Against all Odds will still do nothing for me as it makes more sense for the outnumbered Order players to stay in Chaos Wastes and fight the zerg for increased renown, so we won’t find Order elsewhere. Therefore whilst this system does have potential and I don’t think it will really cause any harm, I’m not sure that potential will be realised until further campaign changes are made that properly require us to spread out across different zones at once (i.e. the changes I’ve been banging on about for a while!). Of course once Mythic reveal the full extent of their ORvR changes, perhaps this will work out very well.
And finally, the new options for Sovereign armour. There will be alternate versions of Sovereign armour you can trade yours in for that provide different stats and bonuses, so a DPS Shaman can have DPS Sovereign and a Healer a healing version, etc. This is a good thing. A lot people I know that have Sovereign don’t bother with it and this may change that.
All told it’s a decent letter, sure I’d like more concrete future news, but at least we know it IS coming. 1.3.6 is shaping up to be a half decent patch and I’m intrigued to see what else the Summer of WAR brings us.
In an attempt not to write a monstrous wall of text and considering you’ve probably already read it after I linked yesterday, I won’t quote the whole thing, just bits I feel particularly need it. Which is really only the very first paragraph, it’s an interesting statement dripping with potential joy or disappointment, depending on your general outlook on WAR.
“Through these communications I’ve emphasized how we listen to the community and take your feedback seriously while planning the future of WAR. For the most part, the “P-Letter” (as I like to call it) is intended to be a short term look at the next version or two, giving you a look forward at the months to come. However, it’s very clear that there is a lot of desire to hear about long term planning. We hear these requests loud and clear, and it is our desire to give you a better sense of WAR’s long term plan by the end of summer. Our detractors like to make fun of us for “being really excited” and “itching to tell you about” some “really cool things” (yes, we read the snarky posts), and in this case we want to shout it from the rooftops…but not just yet.”
Some people have chosen to read this as “we acknowledge what you say, but we’re still not saying anything, so like whatever...”. I think that is more than a little harsh. I’ve been at the forefront of calling for proper and solid news for the future of WAR and it seems to me that the time is ripe to do so. However I understand that there may well be reasons, that I am unaware of, that prevent Mythic from saying anything until a certain point. Actually if you think about what's coming out over the next year from Blizard who love to shaft other MMO news releases, betas, etc (poor FF got it this week), perhaps Mythic are right to be cautious. What the above statement does do is confirm that there are major developments in the pipeline beyond the ORvR campaign improvements we’re starting to see now, certainly “shout it from the rooftops” doesn’t allude to something small and crappy.
Everyone, who isn’t being negative for the sake of it, will have read that as meaning there will be an expansion announcement made at the end of summer. Mythic must know we’ll do this and they’ve dropped clues elsewhere (“its Red, a Plague and probably a portent”, etc), so this latest comment will have been a calculated decision to tease us more. As such my no doubt unsurprising prediction is at the end of summer we will see announcement of the Red Plague expansion. Of course this leads to all manner of questions about what the expansion will be (Skaven obv, but how/what/where?) and the big question of when actually is the end of summer? That last one has a very varied answer depending on what country you live in and which form of measurement you sign up to, ranging from the beginning of August to late September… So we’re waiting a couple of months at least for the big news.
Moving on… There is mention of the EU players transferring from GOA to Mythic, no shock there and it’s not dwelled on too much, which makes sense as plenty has been said already.
As the letter starts to focus on 1.3.6 we get a few interesting bits of news. First there’s word of a dev diary on its way to explain in more detail about the new armour appearance system. Not much to say about this, other than I look forward to hearing the details. Now we start getting to the stuff that will get the speculation going. In the letter it refers to the ORvR changes coming in 1.3.6 as “the less significant portion of the work”, and it’s pretty clear that Mythic have some big changes in the pipeline for ORvR, so what pray tell are the more significant changes going to be? Larger RvR lakes? Missing Cities? Fortresses? A change to the zone locking system? Hopefully we’ll hear more soon.
Defenders of the Mailbox… Ahh bless, so you’ll have to go into the RvR lakes and risk being attacked while you’re busy AFK leeching renown. Of course I’m sure you’ll find somewhere to hide, but now we should at least be able to hunt you down and slice up your AFK buttocks.
Carrie also talks about “Against all Odds”; a new system that gives you bonus XP, renown and influence when you are outnumbered in a RvR area. Having pondered and discussed this a bit, it seems that this is one of those changes that has a lot of potential, but I’m not entirely sure how it will actually play out on live. It doesn’t encourage you to fight away from your faction’s zerg, it encourages you to fight in a different zone to your zerg. That is an important distinction. For example say Destruction outnumber Order and everyone is fighting in the Chaos Wastes, if I chose to lead my group away from the zerg and try to fight Order in different parts of the zone, then Against all Odds does nothing for my small group because we’re in the same zone as the zerg. However if lead us to a different zone, Against all Odds will still do nothing for me as it makes more sense for the outnumbered Order players to stay in Chaos Wastes and fight the zerg for increased renown, so we won’t find Order elsewhere. Therefore whilst this system does have potential and I don’t think it will really cause any harm, I’m not sure that potential will be realised until further campaign changes are made that properly require us to spread out across different zones at once (i.e. the changes I’ve been banging on about for a while!). Of course once Mythic reveal the full extent of their ORvR changes, perhaps this will work out very well.
And finally, the new options for Sovereign armour. There will be alternate versions of Sovereign armour you can trade yours in for that provide different stats and bonuses, so a DPS Shaman can have DPS Sovereign and a Healer a healing version, etc. This is a good thing. A lot people I know that have Sovereign don’t bother with it and this may change that.
All told it’s a decent letter, sure I’d like more concrete future news, but at least we know it IS coming. 1.3.6 is shaping up to be a half decent patch and I’m intrigued to see what else the Summer of WAR brings us.
Monday, 17 May 2010
What WAR needs from DAoC – Part 3
Seeing as this is part 3 it would seem a sensible moment to look at the whole 3rd realm malarkey. We’ve all talked about 3rd realms a lot in the past and I think everyone agrees that this far in to the game it is probably the most difficult change Mythic could make…
DAoC’s three-realm system provides the campaign with a couple of very important things: paranoia and fragile power.
Paranoia
Whenever you’re fighting in DAoC’s vast oRvR frontiers, you’re always paranoid, always suffering (or rather revelling in) a sense of nagging uncertainty. Any straightforward fight can escalate into utter carnage; you just can’t tell what’s going to happen...
I’m logged in and grouped up with my Midgard hunter and fighting the foul tree hugging Hibernians, when suddenly a large force from Albion appears from the forest to my east. They don’t engage at first, they just stand there, watching… In that brief moment a range of possibilities ran through my mind. Will they charge us, or the Hibs, or both? Will they let us kill each other and just mop up the survivors? Perhaps they will ignore us all, leave us unable to fight and use this as an opportunity to make a strategic move of some form… But then it’s not just down to them, what about us? Perhaps both Hibs and Mids will see the Albs as a greater threat and attack first, yet that is relying on both factions reacting in the same way… What if we break for the Albs, but the Hibs don’t? Bloody hell this could get messy fast!
In that particular fight I’m remembering the Albs charged, but unfortunately for them both Mids and Hibs saw them as the large threat. With almost psychic coordination both realms ceased fighting, swung round to meet the Albion charge and after a protracted fight defeated the new enemy. However it was then our turn for some misfortune as the Hibs finished that fight in a better state than us and kicked our arse immediately. It was epic fun though. When fighting in WAR’s 2 realm system you just can’t get those moments, it’s always going to simply be us and them.
It’s worth noting that above I’m referring to a particular sense of paranoia and tension when fighting the enemy and making strategic moves. However you’ll find a different kind of tension throughout all of your frontier oRvR experiences, but that’s more to do with the way the zones work than the 3rd realm. I guess the easiest way to compare it to WAR is it feels a bit like solo roaming in Land of the Dead, when the enemy has the zone controlled and death means game over.
Fragile power
The 3 realm system means any attempt at being the dominant realm is a fragile thing. If one realm starts to dominate the campaign, they will find themselves under attack from both of the other realms. Not normally in any kind of official alliance, more just an unspoken agreement to deal with the bigger menace. Really it is just like that fight I described above, but scaled up a lot. With the open zone system this means that if one realm gains a lot of territory, they now have to maintain control over a lot of territory and against a lot of enemies. If the only RvR you’ve played is in WAR, it’s hard for me to get across quite how vast a task it is to control a lot of land in DAoC. It would take a lot of effort with just 1 enemy realm to deal with, but with 2 enemies it doesn’t take much for the cracks to appear.
Time once again to ask: what if any of this could WAR introduce?
A third realm IS doable and DAoC’s “New Frontiers” expansion proved Mythic are capable of making changes on the scale required. However, that was a different game in a different time. There’s no escaping it would be a massive undertaking today and I imagine would cost so much money to do that it couldn’t be seriously considered by Mythic. Playing make-believe for a bit though, if they did go for it there are a few obstacles to clear.
Q) In the current oRvR zones, if 2 realms have little room for manoeuvre, how the hell do you squeeze a third in?
A) As per my previous post you make Tier 4 zones full oRvR and give us much larger battlefields. And remember it’s not just the 3rd realm thing adding an extra sense of tension and paranoia to DAoC. The large openRvR zones and more dispersed roaming players create a much larger wilder feeling world. You can see how this could actually work in WAR when playing in Land of the Dead, only 2 realms but a large open zone without funnelling and a constant sense of danger.
Q) How do you connect new lands to the existing racial pairings?
Q) Who’s city gets sieged?
A) Again check out that post of mine from before, for more nice pictures with a suggestion for using the current locking zone lark. That said, I'd much prefer it if we also got rid of zone locks, in which case we could have a system linked to keep and territory control. Once your controlled points reaches a certain low, your city is attackable by the realm with the most controlled points.
Q) WAR’s realm’s have 3 races each, so what races for the new realm?
A) Disease. This is one discussed in comments plenty of times on here before, so credit to all involved in those discussions. Skaven, Beastmen and Nurgle Chaos (Nurgle is the rival of the already playable Tzeentch Chaos). This is the ONLY combination of the remaining primary races in the Warhammer lore that doesn’t have a serious lore conflict. Those 3 are made for each other.
However... time to stamp on this dream. :(
Whilst it could work (it really could, honest!), I very much doubt its feasible to do because of the scale of it and the costs I presume it would involve. No matter what we all want it all just boils down to this.
So when WAR gets new playable races I fully expect them to be part of the existing 2 realms, but maybe that's not such a bad thing...
Next: Summing it all up, what should and might actually be done.
DAoC’s three-realm system provides the campaign with a couple of very important things: paranoia and fragile power.
Paranoia
Whenever you’re fighting in DAoC’s vast oRvR frontiers, you’re always paranoid, always suffering (or rather revelling in) a sense of nagging uncertainty. Any straightforward fight can escalate into utter carnage; you just can’t tell what’s going to happen...
I’m logged in and grouped up with my Midgard hunter and fighting the foul tree hugging Hibernians, when suddenly a large force from Albion appears from the forest to my east. They don’t engage at first, they just stand there, watching… In that brief moment a range of possibilities ran through my mind. Will they charge us, or the Hibs, or both? Will they let us kill each other and just mop up the survivors? Perhaps they will ignore us all, leave us unable to fight and use this as an opportunity to make a strategic move of some form… But then it’s not just down to them, what about us? Perhaps both Hibs and Mids will see the Albs as a greater threat and attack first, yet that is relying on both factions reacting in the same way… What if we break for the Albs, but the Hibs don’t? Bloody hell this could get messy fast!
In that particular fight I’m remembering the Albs charged, but unfortunately for them both Mids and Hibs saw them as the large threat. With almost psychic coordination both realms ceased fighting, swung round to meet the Albion charge and after a protracted fight defeated the new enemy. However it was then our turn for some misfortune as the Hibs finished that fight in a better state than us and kicked our arse immediately. It was epic fun though. When fighting in WAR’s 2 realm system you just can’t get those moments, it’s always going to simply be us and them.
It’s worth noting that above I’m referring to a particular sense of paranoia and tension when fighting the enemy and making strategic moves. However you’ll find a different kind of tension throughout all of your frontier oRvR experiences, but that’s more to do with the way the zones work than the 3rd realm. I guess the easiest way to compare it to WAR is it feels a bit like solo roaming in Land of the Dead, when the enemy has the zone controlled and death means game over.
Fragile power
The 3 realm system means any attempt at being the dominant realm is a fragile thing. If one realm starts to dominate the campaign, they will find themselves under attack from both of the other realms. Not normally in any kind of official alliance, more just an unspoken agreement to deal with the bigger menace. Really it is just like that fight I described above, but scaled up a lot. With the open zone system this means that if one realm gains a lot of territory, they now have to maintain control over a lot of territory and against a lot of enemies. If the only RvR you’ve played is in WAR, it’s hard for me to get across quite how vast a task it is to control a lot of land in DAoC. It would take a lot of effort with just 1 enemy realm to deal with, but with 2 enemies it doesn’t take much for the cracks to appear.
Time once again to ask: what if any of this could WAR introduce?
A third realm IS doable and DAoC’s “New Frontiers” expansion proved Mythic are capable of making changes on the scale required. However, that was a different game in a different time. There’s no escaping it would be a massive undertaking today and I imagine would cost so much money to do that it couldn’t be seriously considered by Mythic. Playing make-believe for a bit though, if they did go for it there are a few obstacles to clear.
Q) In the current oRvR zones, if 2 realms have little room for manoeuvre, how the hell do you squeeze a third in?
A) As per my previous post you make Tier 4 zones full oRvR and give us much larger battlefields. And remember it’s not just the 3rd realm thing adding an extra sense of tension and paranoia to DAoC. The large openRvR zones and more dispersed roaming players create a much larger wilder feeling world. You can see how this could actually work in WAR when playing in Land of the Dead, only 2 realms but a large open zone without funnelling and a constant sense of danger.
Q) How do you connect new lands to the existing racial pairings?A) You make a T-junction in the central zone of the existing pairings. I made a post about how this could work a while back. In that post I was working based upon the premise of zone-locking and went with Wood Elves as you can see, but the T-junction works regardless of zone-locking or the superior open zone campaign system. Slightly changing my original idea, take West Praag, Cinderfall or the Elf one I’ve forgotten the name of, and turn those into the gateways into the other realm’s lands. In my head this would require the least amount of change to existing zones.
Q) Who’s city gets sieged?
A) Again check out that post of mine from before, for more nice pictures with a suggestion for using the current locking zone lark. That said, I'd much prefer it if we also got rid of zone locks, in which case we could have a system linked to keep and territory control. Once your controlled points reaches a certain low, your city is attackable by the realm with the most controlled points.
Q) WAR’s realm’s have 3 races each, so what races for the new realm?
A) Disease. This is one discussed in comments plenty of times on here before, so credit to all involved in those discussions. Skaven, Beastmen and Nurgle Chaos (Nurgle is the rival of the already playable Tzeentch Chaos). This is the ONLY combination of the remaining primary races in the Warhammer lore that doesn’t have a serious lore conflict. Those 3 are made for each other.
However... time to stamp on this dream. :(
Whilst it could work (it really could, honest!), I very much doubt its feasible to do because of the scale of it and the costs I presume it would involve. No matter what we all want it all just boils down to this.
So when WAR gets new playable races I fully expect them to be part of the existing 2 realms, but maybe that's not such a bad thing...
Next: Summing it all up, what should and might actually be done.
Saturday, 1 May 2010
Having had a few hours to discuss and think about the cross-realming change…
…I still think it’s a very bad idea. It won’t be a surprise to hear this was the big topic of debate on our guild’s ventrilo tonight and it’s probably not a shock either to discover than everyone thought it is a horrible idea. Unless it is to help the introduction of a third faction, in which case it was universally accepted as a worthy cause for such a change. If it there was an expansion coming that adds races to the existing factions, well I don’t really see how this would help, but I'm open to hearing how. Problem is as we don’t have anything concrete to suggest an expansion, we’re left hoping it’s a third faction expansion and praying this was just a poorly timed comment in advance of an announcement.
Putting in a changing faction lock out timer of say 12 hours after logging in with a character will prevent much of the spiteful and tactical cross-realming, but it still leaves us with problems to deal with. Some guilds will be fractured as people decide to jump ship; the grass is greener and all that. And what about a strict no cross realming guild? How do they manage this change? It will also be much easier (with no extra cost) and more common for people to infiltrate enemy guilds and cause all manner of problems. I just can’t see what positive purpose this change has, unless it is related to an expansion. It makes no sense.
In the producer’s letter thread Andy has confirmed they are not considering server merges, so that thankfully is ruled out. I’ve no idea what the US servers are like, but the 2 English speaking EU ones I play on are both very busy, so server merges seemed odd anyway.
Just to throw a little more hope in there; the grab bag video is broken at the time of posting, it only plays for about a minute, but the Bretonnia background is there again. We also have to hope this line from the Producer's Letter means something decent:
"Also keep on the lookout for a special announcement video coming straight from the bloggers to you!"
I think we really need some reassurance from Mythic here. Feel free to email me something positive Mythic (hey if you don't ask you don't get!) :P Everyone I’ve spoken to is very worried about what this means. Everyone is hopeful for an expansion. And everyone will be devastated if that’s not what is coming and we just get Mythic sponsored cross-realming.
Sunday, 25 April 2010
Bretonnia, could it work?
I’m going to continue playing along with this dream of The Red Plague expansion, for a start it’s an interesting topic and even if these rumours turn out to be a load of old bollocks (which is a distinct possibility), at some point WAR will get an expansion. When that expansion arrives it’s extremely likely that we’ll see Skaven as a playable race. I know I would love to see them in-game and as discussion on the various WAR forums, etc has shown over the last two years I’m not alone in that respect. Also they have a wonderful selection of careers just waiting to be created, it’s an absolute no-brainer and Mythic would be spolit for choice. So assuming the Red Plague was a real expansion that introduces Skaven for the forces of Destruction, what would Order get in return?
The second big thing to get round is the perception that Bretonnians are all about Knights and Damsels, which limits career options too much. I’d actually like to challenge that perception, because I don’t think it’s true anymore. The current Bretonnian book puts a lot of emphasis on the class divide in Bretonnian society and how this is reflected in the army itself. Yes there are a lot of Knights, but there are also things like Men at Arms, Peasant Bowman (based upon Enligsh Longbowmen who as history demonstrated were not to be underestimated), Yeoman and Battle Pilgrims. Those units also often have champions, champions that could be taken a bit further perhaps… Keep in mind this kind of tinkering is why the Disciple of Khaine career exists in WAR and not on the tabletop.
I’m not going to spend ages going into the detail of how I would make the actual careers work, that’ll turn this post into a monster :P So instead here are some basic themes from characters and troop types already in the existing lore:
Villein (RDPS)
Bretonnian longbowmen are led by dubious characters know as Villeins. Why not expand that character a bit? A peasant he maybe, but this guy has fought tooth and nail to escape his lowly birth. Deadly at range with his longbow, but devious and tricky up close. Dirty tricks are the order of the day, anything goes if it gives him an advantage. Dirt in their eyes, kicks in the balls, hidden weapons, poisons, the works.
Damsel (Healer)
That’s an easy question, as the context of the Red Plague itself defines the answer. It has to be either Wood Elves or Bretonnians. I’m not going to talk about Wood Elves today as over at Blurring Shock you can find an excellent post with ideas for what careers the Wood Elves could introduce to WAR. I would consider doing things slightly differently perhaps, well… perhaps anyway. Just like Skaven, the Wood Elves are a race that has multiple options for WAR style careers. Anyways, today I’ll post some thoughts on what careers the Bretonnians could have. In my previous post Grukkzag commented that he couldn’t see how Brettonians could be made to fit in, but I think there are ways, with a little tinkering anyway… First though there is one big problem to deal with, in both the warhammer lore and the tabletop game the Bretonnians are built around mounted Knights. They are essentially a cavalry army with limited infantry support. In WAR there is no mounted combat and it is extremely unlikely there ever will be for a wide range of reasons, so if we get Bretonnians they will be fighting on foot. You could try to imagine some clever background reason for this, or you just ignore it, make the careers totally kick arse and awesome looking and don’t worry about it. I’m all for the latter of those two options. Dressing it up would probably just sound stupid.
The second big thing to get round is the perception that Bretonnians are all about Knights and Damsels, which limits career options too much. I’d actually like to challenge that perception, because I don’t think it’s true anymore. The current Bretonnian book puts a lot of emphasis on the class divide in Bretonnian society and how this is reflected in the army itself. Yes there are a lot of Knights, but there are also things like Men at Arms, Peasant Bowman (based upon Enligsh Longbowmen who as history demonstrated were not to be underestimated), Yeoman and Battle Pilgrims. Those units also often have champions, champions that could be taken a bit further perhaps… Keep in mind this kind of tinkering is why the Disciple of Khaine career exists in WAR and not on the tabletop.I’m not going to spend ages going into the detail of how I would make the actual careers work, that’ll turn this post into a monster :P So instead here are some basic themes from characters and troop types already in the existing lore:
Paladin (Tank)
This is not your WoW style Paladin, full of magic and holy smiting blah blah blah. This is a proper warrior. A Bretonnian Paladin is national hero admired amongst a nation of heroes, a shining example of chivalry and hard as bloody nails too. Covered from head to toe in the finest plate-mail armour and wielding a range of weapons, these Knights are some of the old world’s most elite warriors. The career would have brutal melee abilities and some kind of other abilities based around their religious purity and the vows they take. Also I would have them using Morning Stars, Flails and Maces, as I don’t think anyone really uses those in WAR currently and Bretonnians are rather fond of Morning Stars in particular.
Morning Star - if you build it they will come.
Knight Errant (MDPS)
Young Knights trying to prove themselves and become Knights of the Realm. Also known as arrogant, obnoxious and very posh psychopaths. Give them medium armour, lots of weapons, abilities that reflect their unhinged nature and I’m sure us players could provide the psychosis.Villein (RDPS)
Bretonnian longbowmen are led by dubious characters know as Villeins. Why not expand that character a bit? A peasant he maybe, but this guy has fought tooth and nail to escape his lowly birth. Deadly at range with his longbow, but devious and tricky up close. Dirty tricks are the order of the day, anything goes if it gives him an advantage. Dirt in their eyes, kicks in the balls, hidden weapons, poisons, the works.Damsel (Healer)
In Bretonnia you’ve got two types of damsels; the ones in distress and the ones causing it. Obviously we’re talking about the latter. They are spellcasters with magic using the lores of beasts and life, perfect for a hybrid pet and healing class. Pets being this like summoned wolves, bears and the like.
Now those are not the only options, whilst I was looking at the Bretonnian book I had other ideas for things like a Master of Arms, Battle Pilgrims and Questing Knights. So I think it is perfectly doable, should Mythic ever choose to do so. I’d still prefer Wood Elves overall, but I’d roll a Villein on Karak-Azgal tomorrow if they existed :D
Saturday, 24 April 2010
Further Red Plague rumour milling
To continue from my post earlier, I just saw this thread by Wolfner on WHA where he references something spotted by Yitu (German blogger so link is in german). It's talking about the 1.3.4 video grab bag where as always there is a warhammer background type thing behind them. Apparently (I've not checked this) the grab bag background is normally a map of the Empire, or when it was about the Land of the Dead a map of that area. This grab bag is unusual because for no real reason it has Bretonnia in big letters smack bang in the middle of the screen and not a lot else visible... and this is for the whole interview.
Why is this relevant to the Red Plague? Well that would be because the Red Plague is most famous for being inflicted by the Skaven upon Bretonnia, which involved both the Bretonnians and Wood Elves.
Another clue? Or just another example of a community desperate for an expansion clutching at straws? Pffft... I have no idea, but either way it's something positive and potentially awesome to talk about so why the hell not! ;)
Oh and I get to put a nice picture of a Knight Templar up with an English flag for Saint George's day and it's actually on topic! AWESOME SAUCE! Well, apart from the fact it's now late at night and it's actually the day after. Bollocks, I should have posted earlier...
Why is this relevant to the Red Plague? Well that would be because the Red Plague is most famous for being inflicted by the Skaven upon Bretonnia, which involved both the Bretonnians and Wood Elves. If you're not familiar with the Bretonnians, they're a nation of humans with a mixture of classic Arthurian legend and 14-15th century French chivalric knights theme. It is a very militaristic society, full of double-hard bastards with big weapons and they're all itching for a fight (as well as from the pox).
Politically they are independent from Karl Franz and his Empire, but have often allied with them. Also their entire culture and religion is being manipulated by the Wood Elves. Never trust an Elf...
Oh and I get to put a nice picture of a Knight Templar up with an English flag for Saint George's day and it's actually on topic! AWESOME SAUCE! Well, apart from the fact it's now late at night and it's actually the day after. Bollocks, I should have posted earlier...
Friday, 23 April 2010
The Red Plague expansion?
Is Mykiel actually Hercule Poiroit? I ask this because the clever git has spotted a possible clue in the patch notes, a very interesting clue indeed. One has to wonder if Mykiel will next reveal a Belgian accent and a moustache of curly distinction…
Go look at his post of epic intrigue here, have a read, leave a comment and then come back here for a chat and a lovely cup of tea. I’ll get the digestive biscuits out and if you’re lucky perhaps a chocolate hob-nob or two.
/boils kettle
/makes a lovely cup of tea
Ah there you are. Have a biscuit. Interesting read eh?
Now then, now then… it could be nothing at all, but everything Mykiel has said makes sense. It is very strange for Mythic to reference the Red Plague from established Warhammer history as the reason for the crafting NPCs to have moved to the cities. For a start they wouldn’t normally bother fluffing out the reason for the NPC’s relocation, certainly they never have before and if they did want to give it a reason then surely the more obvious and straightforward one would have just been because of the current war between Order and Destruction? Instead they’ve referenced a Skaven engineered plague… And note this is lore very specific to Skaven. The red plague heralds the Skaven going to war against the surface dwellers and not in a little half-arsed way; we’re talking major Skaven invasions. Cities destroyed, populations slaughtered or enslaved and a general collection of devious Rat-Bastardry™. So could this mean the Skaven are coming to WAR?
It’s only a clue and maybe not a real one, but there are things afoot. Lets look at the clues so far:
1) Bioware/Mythic stated they have new content and expansions planned for WAR.
2) They’ve also stated that the game is very profitable and subs are increasing. Profits and subs will mean development.
3) At the recent blogger visit to Mythic HQ there was a WAR development team that they were not allowed to talk to or see anything they’re working on.
4) The Red Plague revelation by Mykiel.
The Red Plague... A good name for an expansion yes?
Hmmmm I say! Hmmmm and thrice hmmmm! I think it’s time for all of us to get those little grey cells working. Keep your eyes peeled folks.
Go look at his post of epic intrigue here, have a read, leave a comment and then come back here for a chat and a lovely cup of tea. I’ll get the digestive biscuits out and if you’re lucky perhaps a chocolate hob-nob or two.
/boils kettle
/makes a lovely cup of tea
Ah there you are. Have a biscuit. Interesting read eh?
Now then, now then… it could be nothing at all, but everything Mykiel has said makes sense. It is very strange for Mythic to reference the Red Plague from established Warhammer history as the reason for the crafting NPCs to have moved to the cities. For a start they wouldn’t normally bother fluffing out the reason for the NPC’s relocation, certainly they never have before and if they did want to give it a reason then surely the more obvious and straightforward one would have just been because of the current war between Order and Destruction? Instead they’ve referenced a Skaven engineered plague… And note this is lore very specific to Skaven. The red plague heralds the Skaven going to war against the surface dwellers and not in a little half-arsed way; we’re talking major Skaven invasions. Cities destroyed, populations slaughtered or enslaved and a general collection of devious Rat-Bastardry™. So could this mean the Skaven are coming to WAR?
It’s only a clue and maybe not a real one, but there are things afoot. Lets look at the clues so far:
1) Bioware/Mythic stated they have new content and expansions planned for WAR.
2) They’ve also stated that the game is very profitable and subs are increasing. Profits and subs will mean development.
3) At the recent blogger visit to Mythic HQ there was a WAR development team that they were not allowed to talk to or see anything they’re working on.
4) The Red Plague revelation by Mykiel.
The Red Plague... A good name for an expansion yes?
Hmmmm I say! Hmmmm and thrice hmmmm! I think it’s time for all of us to get those little grey cells working. Keep your eyes peeled folks.
Monday, 19 April 2010
Q&A about the new City sieges and a vague hint of something
There was a good post by Mythic the other day answering a whole load of questions about the new full RvR city sieges. The post was by Michael J. Wyatt, who has the no doubt busy job of Designer/Lead for RvR, Encounters, Live Events & Content. You can find the full post and all the questions here.
Here’s a few of the things I was most interested to hear:
Q: Who has control over moving players around in the Warband?
A: No single player does. As an individual, you choose which party within the Warband you would like to be in (assuming there is room). Its intent is to facilitate grouping and coordination; not work against it.
So that sounds just like the scenario system. I wonder if that means we’ll get those selfish healers that like to sit in solo groups and horde RPs?
Q: Will my Warband be split up when zoning into a Contested City?
A: With v1.3.5, the mechanics for entering a city instance remain untouched. It's possible that this will occur and something we're looking at improving upon for the future.
OK, at the moment if I join with a warband we all get in together, as long as we’re all outside at the time and move into the instance fairly promptly. You would only get split up if you’re slacking and take 10 minutes to get into the sodding zone. So assuming I’ve got that right, fine with me.
Q: What's to prevent Champions from running off and hiding?
A: During the final Stage, the gameplay area is sectioned off and the Champions are placed into the battlefield shortly after being chosen. There isn't a place to hide where your enemy cannot find you... quickly. Also, straying too far from your King will cause your Champion buff to fade and credit will be given to the opposing Realm for defeating a Champion.
Excellent news. This was something I know a few guildies were concerned about. The AFK scenario whores are a pain in the arse as it is. Tossers the lot of you btw.
Q: Can players join an instance after it has progressed past Stage 1?
A: Yes. There will be functionality put in place that will temporarily prevent new players from joining a specific Contested City at certain junctures however. To give you an example, new players won't be able to join an instance if the final battle is well underway.
Oh really… if this could be also be used to prevent the immense annoyance of joining an almost finished scenario, well that would be spiffing.
Q: With allowing Defenders to obtain the same end-game equipment, what incentive is there to participate in ORvR?
A: The intent is that Invaders are given an advantage by disallowing Defenders to recapture lost points in Stage 1. The conclusion of each Stage affects the start of the following Stage, too. If the Invaders were allowed to destroy the gates leading to the enemy King, well, the Defenders will have a tough time trying to recouperate their losses and succeed in Stage 2. This will be an aspect that is closely watched and adjusted accordingly. We want you to participate (and win) the Campaign. Simply because you can obtain the same rewards for Defending, doesn't mean you will.
Hmmm… OK I get how when in the city siege instance this encourages you to fight, afk leeching or playing to lose will result in poor rewards. This is good news and to be applauded, anything to bitch slap the leechers is wonderful in my book. Problem is that doesn’t answer the question “what is the incentive to fight in ORvR?”
Billy-Bob the Warrior Priest needs Sovereign armour. He logs on and Destruction are pushing to Altdorf, so Billy-Bob might as well let them and have a chance at getting the armour from defending the city right?
We need a proper negative for having your city undersiege. Not by locking out content like before, but something else... a renown gain buff for the enemy?
Q: How do you plan to prevent players from "AFK Farming"?
A: With v1.3.5, there are significant improvements made to the "Idle Hands" buff. That being said, any player with the "Idle Hands" buff will not receive any reward but still receive the Reward Lockout Timer.
Good good.
Q: Will I still receive a trickle of Scenario Currency rewards?
A: Yes. At the conclusion of each Stage, the players of the winning Realm will receive an Insignia even if a character has a Reward Lockout Timer.
And there was much rejoicing. Now if you could add insignias to general oRvR too, that would be great. I’m not hugely bothered by it, but I’m starting to want one of those nice shields and I don’t want to farm scenarios. :P
Aaaaaaand finally, the vague hint of something.
The lovely Werit has posted yet more info from his visit to Mythic HQ, which includes a little something of special interest…
"During our tour of the office, we got to see nearly everyone. There was one group of WAR developers that we couldn't talk with or even see what they were up to. Who knows what they were working on? It must be something good though :)"
It’s vague for sure, perhaps I’m just clutching at straws or putting 1 and 1 together and getting 9. Whatever... I don't care! :D It will be an expansion and totally awesome. I hope. Pls. Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on.
Here’s a few of the things I was most interested to hear:
Q: Who has control over moving players around in the Warband?
A: No single player does. As an individual, you choose which party within the Warband you would like to be in (assuming there is room). Its intent is to facilitate grouping and coordination; not work against it.
So that sounds just like the scenario system. I wonder if that means we’ll get those selfish healers that like to sit in solo groups and horde RPs?
Q: Will my Warband be split up when zoning into a Contested City?
A: With v1.3.5, the mechanics for entering a city instance remain untouched. It's possible that this will occur and something we're looking at improving upon for the future.
OK, at the moment if I join with a warband we all get in together, as long as we’re all outside at the time and move into the instance fairly promptly. You would only get split up if you’re slacking and take 10 minutes to get into the sodding zone. So assuming I’ve got that right, fine with me.
Q: What's to prevent Champions from running off and hiding?
A: During the final Stage, the gameplay area is sectioned off and the Champions are placed into the battlefield shortly after being chosen. There isn't a place to hide where your enemy cannot find you... quickly. Also, straying too far from your King will cause your Champion buff to fade and credit will be given to the opposing Realm for defeating a Champion.
Excellent news. This was something I know a few guildies were concerned about. The AFK scenario whores are a pain in the arse as it is. Tossers the lot of you btw.
Q: Can players join an instance after it has progressed past Stage 1?
A: Yes. There will be functionality put in place that will temporarily prevent new players from joining a specific Contested City at certain junctures however. To give you an example, new players won't be able to join an instance if the final battle is well underway.
Oh really… if this could be also be used to prevent the immense annoyance of joining an almost finished scenario, well that would be spiffing.
Q: With allowing Defenders to obtain the same end-game equipment, what incentive is there to participate in ORvR?
A: The intent is that Invaders are given an advantage by disallowing Defenders to recapture lost points in Stage 1. The conclusion of each Stage affects the start of the following Stage, too. If the Invaders were allowed to destroy the gates leading to the enemy King, well, the Defenders will have a tough time trying to recouperate their losses and succeed in Stage 2. This will be an aspect that is closely watched and adjusted accordingly. We want you to participate (and win) the Campaign. Simply because you can obtain the same rewards for Defending, doesn't mean you will.
Hmmm… OK I get how when in the city siege instance this encourages you to fight, afk leeching or playing to lose will result in poor rewards. This is good news and to be applauded, anything to bitch slap the leechers is wonderful in my book. Problem is that doesn’t answer the question “what is the incentive to fight in ORvR?”
Billy-Bob the Warrior Priest needs Sovereign armour. He logs on and Destruction are pushing to Altdorf, so Billy-Bob might as well let them and have a chance at getting the armour from defending the city right?
We need a proper negative for having your city undersiege. Not by locking out content like before, but something else... a renown gain buff for the enemy?
Q: How do you plan to prevent players from "AFK Farming"?
A: With v1.3.5, there are significant improvements made to the "Idle Hands" buff. That being said, any player with the "Idle Hands" buff will not receive any reward but still receive the Reward Lockout Timer.
Good good.
Q: Will I still receive a trickle of Scenario Currency rewards?
A: Yes. At the conclusion of each Stage, the players of the winning Realm will receive an Insignia even if a character has a Reward Lockout Timer.
And there was much rejoicing. Now if you could add insignias to general oRvR too, that would be great. I’m not hugely bothered by it, but I’m starting to want one of those nice shields and I don’t want to farm scenarios. :P
Aaaaaaand finally, the vague hint of something.
The lovely Werit has posted yet more info from his visit to Mythic HQ, which includes a little something of special interest…
"During our tour of the office, we got to see nearly everyone. There was one group of WAR developers that we couldn't talk with or even see what they were up to. Who knows what they were working on? It must be something good though :)"
It’s vague for sure, perhaps I’m just clutching at straws or putting 1 and 1 together and getting 9. Whatever... I don't care! :D It will be an expansion and totally awesome. I hope. Pls. Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on.
Monday, 22 March 2010
DOOOOOOM!! Oh good news? NAH! DOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
Since Ray Muzyka’s comments about WAR, the big debate appears to be around the context of his use of the word “expansions”. Some people choosing to see that as him referring to the usual use of “expansions” in MMO terms, as in paid for (or LotD style) expansion packs. Where as others are seeing it in a more literal sense of the word and just meaning adding something to WAR, be it merely a new tool tip or an extra pixel on Karl Franz’s arse.
My first assumption was he meant proper expansions, simply because someone so experienced in the gaming world would surely understand the normal context of the word in relation to MMOs. However, having read a great deal of sensibly expressed argument against this, I’ve been blatted round the head by the doubt-stick. So I think for now I’m going to sit comfortably on the fence and say I’m not sure.
That said I refuse to see the news as anything but positive. I know I shouldn’t be, but I am surprised by the amount of stubborn negativity being posted by WAR’s detractors on forums. How Ray’s comments are a sign of bad news I just don’t know. I mean come on, the game is making a profit and new content (of some form) is being developed, how is that bad news? Ahhh you’ve not played the game in a year, so have no clue about what the game is actually like now, but you still feel the need to justify your hate for it by posting on WHA every day? Of course… silly me, profitable and new content is obviously bad news, I imagine the game will be closed by Christmas 2008. Oops! You meant 2009, oh no sorry 2010?
Anyways, hopefully we’ll get some more news soon on what content we are going to get. I’m not going to get my hopes up too much, as that will most likely lead to disappointment, but whatever happens at least we know WAR’s future is assured.
My first assumption was he meant proper expansions, simply because someone so experienced in the gaming world would surely understand the normal context of the word in relation to MMOs. However, having read a great deal of sensibly expressed argument against this, I’ve been blatted round the head by the doubt-stick. So I think for now I’m going to sit comfortably on the fence and say I’m not sure.
That said I refuse to see the news as anything but positive. I know I shouldn’t be, but I am surprised by the amount of stubborn negativity being posted by WAR’s detractors on forums. How Ray’s comments are a sign of bad news I just don’t know. I mean come on, the game is making a profit and new content (of some form) is being developed, how is that bad news? Ahhh you’ve not played the game in a year, so have no clue about what the game is actually like now, but you still feel the need to justify your hate for it by posting on WHA every day? Of course… silly me, profitable and new content is obviously bad news, I imagine the game will be closed by Christmas 2008. Oops! You meant 2009, oh no sorry 2010?
Anyways, hopefully we’ll get some more news soon on what content we are going to get. I’m not going to get my hopes up too much, as that will most likely lead to disappointment, but whatever happens at least we know WAR’s future is assured.
Friday, 19 March 2010
WAR expansions confirmed!
First off here is the link to the confirmation from Bioware/Mythic's top boy in an article over at massively.
And now if you cba to click the link, here is the info:
In a recent GDC 2010 interview with UGO, BioWare's Dr. Ray Muzyka said of Warhammer Online, "Right now it's [a] really profitable business unit within my group." Muzyka went on to say they've actually seen more people come into the game since enacting the free-to-play model on the game's earlier levels, and that he personally felt they were working.
In fact, by the sounds of it, Warhammer Online is due for some interesting announcements in the future. Another of Muzyka's comments on the title was, "We have new content planned and all kinds of cool expansions for it." We don't know how much more clear cut a message can be than that. And hey, it's good news! We're looking forward to our playable Skaven and Lizardmen, Mythic and BioWare.
Oh yea of little faith! In your face doubters! ;) Though I bet the usual negative troll brigade pick holes in this, even though you can't get much more of a solid confirmation.
And now if you cba to click the link, here is the info:
In a recent GDC 2010 interview with UGO, BioWare's Dr. Ray Muzyka said of Warhammer Online, "Right now it's [a] really profitable business unit within my group." Muzyka went on to say they've actually seen more people come into the game since enacting the free-to-play model on the game's earlier levels, and that he personally felt they were working.
In fact, by the sounds of it, Warhammer Online is due for some interesting announcements in the future. Another of Muzyka's comments on the title was, "We have new content planned and all kinds of cool expansions for it." We don't know how much more clear cut a message can be than that. And hey, it's good news! We're looking forward to our playable Skaven and Lizardmen, Mythic and BioWare.
Oh yea of little faith! In your face doubters! ;) Though I bet the usual negative troll brigade pick holes in this, even though you can't get much more of a solid confirmation.
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Tango in the night?
Personally I prefer Rumours, but rumours are we may end up tangoing in the night anyway. A dark, vampire filled night and without an albatross in sight.
Putting my ropey Fleetwood Mac word associations aside, the rumours of an expansion have been a little, uhm, expanded upon. As you may have seen Radishlaw comment on my last post, the thing people have found is a name “The Blood Hunt Expansion” within some of the files included from the test server. Also I’ve read elsewhere that another file which zones which includes numerous zone names not currently in the game. Amongst which was Sylvania, homeland of the old world’s vampires…
First lets get this in perspective. The only things we know for sure are:
• Some clever techy people have found a handful of words in some files.
• Mythic have declined to comment.
That is all it is... We know nothing else. It could be the findings are from a possible live expansion or live event. Or perhaps and more likely they are just the remains of things removed during development, things never destined to see the light (much like vampires…). As such anything else that I, or anyone else, says is purely speculation and should not be taken as any more than that. But since speculation is fun and it gives me something positive to write about, here I go talking probable bollocks and making 1+1=3! :P
I suspect it’s completely real and Mythic are planning on adding the Vampire Counts as an NPC controlled third faction.
The reasons I think this are as follows:
• Mythic have mentioned that they have some kind of realm balancing system being created. No details have been provided, but if I recall correctly when it was mentioned they implied it was something cool…
• Aion has a NPC third faction, who I believe are meant to assist with balancing, so the idea is already out there in game developer land.
• Warhammer Undead will not work as a playable race, but they are bloody awesome for NPCs.
• The game desperately needs a third faction to balance things out. Ideally a playable one, but this could work too and is probably a lot easier to implement.
• It could actually be pretty damn cool and I want to be in a happy place.
So that’s my thinking and I know I’m not the only one to have thought this. Of course I could be talking a load of old cock, or maybe, just maybe, we could be onto something…
Whatever it is or not, I imagine Mythic are happy to have a bit of a buzz going around. I hope so, because it’s got people talking a little more positively about the future.
Putting my ropey Fleetwood Mac word associations aside, the rumours of an expansion have been a little, uhm, expanded upon. As you may have seen Radishlaw comment on my last post, the thing people have found is a name “The Blood Hunt Expansion” within some of the files included from the test server. Also I’ve read elsewhere that another file which zones which includes numerous zone names not currently in the game. Amongst which was Sylvania, homeland of the old world’s vampires…
First lets get this in perspective. The only things we know for sure are:
• Some clever techy people have found a handful of words in some files.
• Mythic have declined to comment.
That is all it is... We know nothing else. It could be the findings are from a possible live expansion or live event. Or perhaps and more likely they are just the remains of things removed during development, things never destined to see the light (much like vampires…). As such anything else that I, or anyone else, says is purely speculation and should not be taken as any more than that. But since speculation is fun and it gives me something positive to write about, here I go talking probable bollocks and making 1+1=3! :P
I suspect it’s completely real and Mythic are planning on adding the Vampire Counts as an NPC controlled third faction.
The reasons I think this are as follows:
• Mythic have mentioned that they have some kind of realm balancing system being created. No details have been provided, but if I recall correctly when it was mentioned they implied it was something cool…
• Aion has a NPC third faction, who I believe are meant to assist with balancing, so the idea is already out there in game developer land.
• Warhammer Undead will not work as a playable race, but they are bloody awesome for NPCs.
• The game desperately needs a third faction to balance things out. Ideally a playable one, but this could work too and is probably a lot easier to implement.
• It could actually be pretty damn cool and I want to be in a happy place.
So that’s my thinking and I know I’m not the only one to have thought this. Of course I could be talking a load of old cock, or maybe, just maybe, we could be onto something…
Whatever it is or not, I imagine Mythic are happy to have a bit of a buzz going around. I hope so, because it’s got people talking a little more positively about the future.
Monday, 12 October 2009
The WAR Expansion rumour
Is there nothing in it? Are we reading too much into it, or is this the start of another Mythic viral campaign?
Throughout WAR’s life Mythic have regularly promoted rumours through the internet to hype the game. The Choppa and Slayer teasers being absolute classics; when Bloggers were posted parcels containing orange hair dye and an electric shaver, or a DVD of Predator with a note marking the time when Arnie yells “get to da choppa!”
This one though is merely 2 brief comments on their forum.
++++
Fozee
“I found that in the PTS client there’s a big accidental inclusion – information on the next expansion.
Is there anyone in specific I can contact with specifics on the issue?
Nobody wants info leaked before it’s anywhere near finalization.”
++++
Marty (Forum Moderator)
“Guys I’m locking this as it’s not realllly something to be discussed on the forums.
Thanks!
Edited to add the info has been passed uphill to those who can check ‘er out ;)“
++++
This essentially says nothing at all. It could have been a misunderstanding on Fozee’s part. Having not seen what he found, we don’t know. The thing that makes this interesting is the Mythic response. It’s the first time we’ve seen them not deny the existence of an expansion and you could interpret this as confirmation. You could, maybe, perhaps… Or not. Whether there is any truth in it or not, people are still latching onto this nugget of possibility.
And as such, I will now grab hold of the nugget, fondle it lovingly and explain why I hope it’s not just a rumour based on bugger all…
With the current state of WAR we are in dire need of a big announcement. Something to spark interest, something that delivers a giant slice of hope. For a long time many people have said that Mythic should be focusing on the current core game, not adding things like Land of the Dead. To their (eventual) credit, Mythic have now started to do this, but the problem is it’s too late. By the time they get the existing game balanced and performing well, the population drop we’re all now seeing may well have gone too far. Just fixing the basic game is no longer enough. WAR needs an injection of excitement, a giant dangling carrot… WAR needs an expansion announcement.
This would draw people’s attention back to WAR, get the media hype going and give Mythic an opportunity to right the wrongs in the game’s original development. Yes, WAR now NEEDS an expansion.
But not just some new zones and additional races for the existing factions, that would do nothing to address the problem that is the root of all WAR’s issues...
Come on, you know what's coming... it's not like I haven't said it looooooooads of times before, but reviewing Aion has blasted my brain with repetition, so sorry....
WAR desperately needs a third faction announcement. It has gone beyond just people like me wanting one for our own gaming dreams, WAR needs one to stand a long term chance. Otherwise the one side dominating thing will continue to grind down player morale and people will continue to quit. Even if the game’s finer detailed balance issues like AoE, CC and all the intricacies between careers are fixed, it doesn’t matter. The one dominating and one underdog thing doesn’t work in an MMO. When it’s 1v1, there’s always a winner and loser. People will only tolerate consistently losing for so long. However, with 1v1v1, it’s entirely different. If one faction dominates for too long, then the others combine to attack it. The game self-balances, exactly how DAoC did. The people that have left the game know all this. They won’t come back just because we get given some different textures to play in, as this would mean the core problem remains. Yet I can state with abso-bloody-lute confidence that they will come back for a new dynamic 3 way campaign.
I’ve heard people say that Mythic didn’t go with 3 (or more) factions because they didn’t want to make DAoC 2. I don’t know how true that is, but regardless, it’s worth mentioning because that concept is wrong. DAoC2 is EXACTLY what WAR should have been. I honestly think that if WAR had 3 factions then it would roar back upwards in subscription numbers and become a genuine contender. Take a moment to think about what it would mean. Imagine Mythic’s marketing machine go into overdrive promoting the arrival of an unholy alliance of Skaven, Beastmen and Nurgle. Watch your backs people, there’s a beastial horde of diseased and decay scum on their way…. Awesome eh?
However I worry that if there is an expansion, we would just get Lizardmen vs Skaven as additions to the existing factions. Nice, but not enough... It’s the easy expansion, the same old same old. As I said above, we’d get new textures and models, but have all the same problems. Do you think that would bring anyone back for more than a month or two at best? If at all?
Is adding a new faction just too damn big a task? Perhaps… but when you look at what Mythic did with DAoC’s expansions you’ll see they did pretty huge changes. For example, look at the new frontiers update. It was a truly massive change. The entire (yes all of it) oRvR landscape was ripped out and replaced. Yes, this could be one of the biggest changes to an MMO ever, but Mythic could actually pull it off, they have the history and they have the experience. I seriously have faith in their ability to do it.
The question is, do they have the balls, financial backing and sense to do so?
Throughout WAR’s life Mythic have regularly promoted rumours through the internet to hype the game. The Choppa and Slayer teasers being absolute classics; when Bloggers were posted parcels containing orange hair dye and an electric shaver, or a DVD of Predator with a note marking the time when Arnie yells “get to da choppa!”
This one though is merely 2 brief comments on their forum.
++++
Fozee
“I found that in the PTS client there’s a big accidental inclusion – information on the next expansion.
Is there anyone in specific I can contact with specifics on the issue?
Nobody wants info leaked before it’s anywhere near finalization.”
++++
Marty (Forum Moderator)
“Guys I’m locking this as it’s not realllly something to be discussed on the forums.
Thanks!
Edited to add the info has been passed uphill to those who can check ‘er out ;)“
++++
This essentially says nothing at all. It could have been a misunderstanding on Fozee’s part. Having not seen what he found, we don’t know. The thing that makes this interesting is the Mythic response. It’s the first time we’ve seen them not deny the existence of an expansion and you could interpret this as confirmation. You could, maybe, perhaps… Or not. Whether there is any truth in it or not, people are still latching onto this nugget of possibility.
And as such, I will now grab hold of the nugget, fondle it lovingly and explain why I hope it’s not just a rumour based on bugger all…
With the current state of WAR we are in dire need of a big announcement. Something to spark interest, something that delivers a giant slice of hope. For a long time many people have said that Mythic should be focusing on the current core game, not adding things like Land of the Dead. To their (eventual) credit, Mythic have now started to do this, but the problem is it’s too late. By the time they get the existing game balanced and performing well, the population drop we’re all now seeing may well have gone too far. Just fixing the basic game is no longer enough. WAR needs an injection of excitement, a giant dangling carrot… WAR needs an expansion announcement.
This would draw people’s attention back to WAR, get the media hype going and give Mythic an opportunity to right the wrongs in the game’s original development. Yes, WAR now NEEDS an expansion.
But not just some new zones and additional races for the existing factions, that would do nothing to address the problem that is the root of all WAR’s issues...
Come on, you know what's coming... it's not like I haven't said it looooooooads of times before, but reviewing Aion has blasted my brain with repetition, so sorry....
WAR desperately needs a third faction announcement. It has gone beyond just people like me wanting one for our own gaming dreams, WAR needs one to stand a long term chance. Otherwise the one side dominating thing will continue to grind down player morale and people will continue to quit. Even if the game’s finer detailed balance issues like AoE, CC and all the intricacies between careers are fixed, it doesn’t matter. The one dominating and one underdog thing doesn’t work in an MMO. When it’s 1v1, there’s always a winner and loser. People will only tolerate consistently losing for so long. However, with 1v1v1, it’s entirely different. If one faction dominates for too long, then the others combine to attack it. The game self-balances, exactly how DAoC did. The people that have left the game know all this. They won’t come back just because we get given some different textures to play in, as this would mean the core problem remains. Yet I can state with abso-bloody-lute confidence that they will come back for a new dynamic 3 way campaign.
I’ve heard people say that Mythic didn’t go with 3 (or more) factions because they didn’t want to make DAoC 2. I don’t know how true that is, but regardless, it’s worth mentioning because that concept is wrong. DAoC2 is EXACTLY what WAR should have been. I honestly think that if WAR had 3 factions then it would roar back upwards in subscription numbers and become a genuine contender. Take a moment to think about what it would mean. Imagine Mythic’s marketing machine go into overdrive promoting the arrival of an unholy alliance of Skaven, Beastmen and Nurgle. Watch your backs people, there’s a beastial horde of diseased and decay scum on their way…. Awesome eh?
However I worry that if there is an expansion, we would just get Lizardmen vs Skaven as additions to the existing factions. Nice, but not enough... It’s the easy expansion, the same old same old. As I said above, we’d get new textures and models, but have all the same problems. Do you think that would bring anyone back for more than a month or two at best? If at all?
Is adding a new faction just too damn big a task? Perhaps… but when you look at what Mythic did with DAoC’s expansions you’ll see they did pretty huge changes. For example, look at the new frontiers update. It was a truly massive change. The entire (yes all of it) oRvR landscape was ripped out and replaced. Yes, this could be one of the biggest changes to an MMO ever, but Mythic could actually pull it off, they have the history and they have the experience. I seriously have faith in their ability to do it.
The question is, do they have the balls, financial backing and sense to do so?
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Is it possible to add a third faction?
Is it too late? Probably. Would it be a bad time to try? Probably :P It would require huge redevelopment and of course would turn everything on its head. But lets live in dreamland for a moment, if Mythic were to try and add another faction are there actually any real options?
But what if the attack on Nature's fortress failed, Order locked Reikland and then pushed on Praag whilst Destruction was attacking Loren Forests? Uh oh! Destruction's attack has been cut off and now they face a difficult choice.
Continue their attack on Nature's fortress or risk Order locking Praag and pushing into the Chaos Wastes.
I reckon with a shit load of work, time and effort it could be done. So on to the big question....
How to adapt the campaign for a third faction?
The existing system could still work, but have a third VP scoreline and a third branch of zones from each central zone (Praag for example).
First off lets quickly make up a faction. I'm going to go with one called Nature with Lizardmen, Wood Elves and Bretonnians. Now lets attach Wood Elf zones to Praag.
If a faction locks the central zone, then both of the other factions zones become attackable and remain so until the central zone is contested again. 
If either of those zones then lock (to which ever enemy faction), the fortress is then attackable.
Taking it further and sticking with one city each (boo hiss), if your faction takes 2 forts from another faction you then get to attack their city.
But what if the attack on Nature's fortress failed, Order locked Reikland and then pushed on Praag whilst Destruction was attacking Loren Forests? Uh oh! Destruction's attack has been cut off and now they face a difficult choice.
Continue their attack on Nature's fortress or risk Order locking Praag and pushing into the Chaos Wastes.
Oh my, what's this? A far less linear and more dynamic campaign? Actual options to cut off supply lines and isolate the enemy? Well, I think so anyway...
Riddled with flaws? Probably, but then maybe something like this could be fitted into WAR. Dark Age of Camelot showed us how well 3 factions works, it prevents one side dominating and keeping the campaign fresh and exciting. Those of us that played DAoC have struggled to understand why Mythic didn't do the same again here.
Riddled with flaws? Probably, but then maybe something like this could be fitted into WAR. Dark Age of Camelot showed us how well 3 factions works, it prevents one side dominating and keeping the campaign fresh and exciting. Those of us that played DAoC have struggled to understand why Mythic didn't do the same again here.
When Mythic starts looking at major expansions, perhaps they should start reconsidering that missing faction.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
About Me
- Bootae
- Half man half pixel. Music obsessive, likes a drink, occasional bastard.