Let WAR come upon us

Design Concepts
The Design Team at Mythic is pursuing certain guidelines and goals in their work. First, they are firmly basing WAR on the existing Warhammer universe, weaving the online world from a multitude of Warhammer resources. When they log in, the design team wants fans of the setting to recognize structures, weapons, armor and banners from the games and books they're already familiar with.



Warhammer has an exremely varied line of products, and not all of them exactly alike - the Warhammer license has adjusted to fit each new medium (and each has taken certain liberties with the property to make it work). There is, however, a core of ideas that never change. In the world of Warhammer, the battle between the races is unending and the armies are numerous. It's this sense of an "epic, heroic struggle" that's most essential to maintaining the accuracy of the franchise. Mythic is working hard to preserve what they identify as the eight essential elements of the franchise - battles, grudges, empire, magic, chaos, humor, monsters and war.



To create the best possible MMO, Mythic is laboring to draw from the overall Warhammer IP (much of which lives only in the minds of the creative talent at Games Workshop) and adapt it for a digital, interactive media. When adapting Warhammer to the online MMO environment and dealing with elements that have no precedent in existing GW sources, Mythic is adding to the Warhammer tapestry in close cooperation with Games Workshop. There will be differences between WAR and the miniatures game, and there will be differences between WAR and the Roleplaying game. Mythic is not trying to make either of those games online. They're using the entire Warhammer property and lifting all the great decades of creative value that exists there and using it wherever it makes sense. The Age of Reckoning is being set in the "modern" Warhammer world - the world in which Karl Franz is the Emperor in Altdorf, Finubar sits upon the Phoenix Throne, and the High King of the Dwarfs is Thorgrim Grudgebearer - but removed from the existing Warhammer timeline to allow EA Mythic to pull from 25 years of material, of characters, of battles and things they want in the game - a sort of greatest hits of the Warhammer world.



Warhammer Online’s next design goal and most fundamental design philosophy is “War is everywhere” - this is a world at war and the effects of the conflict should be visible. When they log in, the players shouldn't wonder where the "War" is - the world is built around the idea of epic conflict, and that should be immediately obvious to anyone who plays. Everywhere they look, the land should be battle-ravaged and blood-soaked. Everything the players do should have something to do with the war - those who aren't on the front lines battling against other players should be moving around disrupting supply lines, not collecting lizard heads. There is a war going on and the player characters are caught up in it, not quietly weaving shirts and hunting rats in the safety of a distant town.

After "War is Everywhere", the most important thing to understand about the design principles of the game is that Mythic doesn't consider any MMO player 'casual' - all MMO players are, by their definition, hardcore: they are people who keep coming back, keep playing, keep paying money for that privilege every month for years. The casual gamers are the one's who want to play and put it away, who think paying money every month for an interactive gaming experience is too much to ask.



Mythic is not treating this MMO design like they would game design. They aren't creating something that they expect the players to buy, play for 40 or 50 hours, then put on a shelf. An MMO should not be designed like a packaged game experience, it should be designed like a hobby experience - something which the players are committed to mastering, something that occupies their minds, something that draws them back month after month, year after year. They don't want it to be rewarding based simply on hanging around for 15 hours a day. It should be something that takes skill and inspires imagination.



To that end, Mythic's design is focused on the endgame - what the players will do with their character once they have finished climbing through the advancement and customization process. They believe firmly that competing with characters controlled by living and breathing humans, rather than facing AI-driven opponents and static content, provides the most variable and repeatable endgame. The end game should be an epic, heroic, perpetual struggle between the hobbyists that draws them back again and again, to compete and dominate.


Graphic Design
When some people think of Warhammer, they think of a dark, depressing and evil world where dreary overcast skies dominate and rain is continuous. The world described to us in Warhammer fiction or roleplaying resources, however, isn't like that. It is a vibrant world - a vast and fertile place full of living forests, fertile river valleys, beautiful mountain vistas, glittering seas and broad agricultural lands.



The corruption, the hatred, and the darkness lie just beneath the surface, in the minds of people who have fallen to the creeping influences of chaos or the desperation created from the never-ending struggle for survival. Beneath the beautiful exterior is a dark and dangerous land where nightmares come true, where malignant entities stalk the dark places, where there are no happy endings, and where war is never won. It is a world full of racial animosity, greedy self interest, and immoral (or self-justifying) extremists who will take any measure to defeat their foes. The elements of the gritty reality, the grim gothic cities, the blood and gore and violence, all sit on top of that vibrant world, marring its beauty like great open sores, bleeding their puss into the environment in a way that shocks the viewer by its very contrast with the surrounding environment.



True to the Warhammer IP, the creative team at Mythic is using a bright palette of colors to deliver a vibrant, highly stylized world with elements that are deliberately exaggerated in size. They are spending a significant amount of time in creating vast environments - full of floating ironclad ships, aerodromes, hovels, spooky old towers, ruins, statues, little castles and towns - as well as detailed character models and NPCs. They are using extremely high resolution textures that, like the art of the IP itself, are full of small details. In an unprecedented advancement for the genre, all avatars, NPCs, and monsters are being modeled with fully boned faces and a variety of facial animation that convey a range of moods (anger, sadness, happy, and fear), breathing a little more life into the virtual reality.



The game already boasts great looking fire, smoke, haze, water, grass, and shadows to show off the detailed and exaggerated personality of the Warhammer license. They are designing environments that are rich, vibrant, funny and more than a little bit evil, where heads hang from trees while birds feast on the corpses left by recent battles and the ruined evidence of war - rusting cannon, broken weapons, and vast ruins - lie scattered over the countryside.

Warhammer fans will find a world filled with elements they are familiar with from tabletop wargaming and roleplaying - banner and flags with familiar symbols, structures described in the fiction or available for purchase as part of the miniatures collection. The creature modeling very closely resembles the pewter miniatures found in the board game and the attention to detail in the textures would make any miniature painter wish they could put that much detail into their models. They’ve brought in a number of the iconic locations of the Warhammer universe. If you’re familiar with the world, you’ll finally get to see up close and personal many of the locations you’ve only read about or seen modeled. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s your chance to delve deep into the world, knowing that what you’re looking at has a history and a shadow, much past what you see.



Summary of Planned Features
Based on Games Workshop's popular Warhammer fantasy world. Dominated by force of arms and magic, this world provides a rich setting for hundreds of thousands of players to experience the epic nature of war and the glory of battle.

Online play will require a subscription and Internet connection

Pause to take a look and see how your faction is doing before you log in and jump into the action.

Play on either RP or non-RP. The RP servers will be more strictly enforced for RP behaviors.

The game world is divided into two realms, three battlefronts, six armies, and twenty-four character careers. Fight for the Armies of Order (Dwarf, High Elf and Empire) or the Armies of Destruction (Greenskin, Dark Elf, or Chaos). Travel and wage war across three unique battlefronts.

Choose from among 4 Race Specific Careers per Army
-Each career is based on either Arms or Magic
-Each career is Iconic, what you see is what you get, every Career gets a gimmick.
-Progress through 4 Tiers of 10 ranks each.

Purchase skill packages to customize your character
-Primary Career Skills
-Secondary Career skills
-Specialization Skills

Enjoy player models that change to reflect the relative power of a character (i.e., Orcs grow in size and Dwarfs' beards get longer). A mixed item system where Dwarfs armor looks nothing like goblin armor, and a customizable armor and a visual guild system that allows a player to make their character truly unique.

Customize and configure your UI from within the game, reorganizing and applying custom skins.

Enjoy day and night cycles and weather effects.

Take part in a next generation Realm vs. Realm system that integrates both PvP combat and PvE quests on the same map in support of the greater war.

Engage in four levels of RvR combat:
- Skirmishes: Incidental PvP combat
- Battlefields: Objective-based battles in the game world
- Scenarios: Instanced, point-based battles balanced with NPC Dogs of War
- Campaigns: The invasion of enemy lands culminating in the assault on their capital city

Undertake a wide variety of PvE and PvP quest types related to an army's war efforts, including:
- Public quests that benefit from the participation of the entire army
- Conflict quests that pit players against an enemy with opposing goals
- Branching quests that let you choose the outcome of the quest and your reward
- Xmas quests that reward exploration with high value loot

Master a robust combat system that introduces Player Tactics (earned powers you equip prior to battle) and Morale Skills (combat options that increase in power when the momentum of battle is in your favor).

Advance through your chosen career in PvP, PvE, or a combination of the two.

Collect loot from dropped from enemy players and npc opponents equally, without the dreaded Bind on Pickup limitations to cripple player economic activity.

Sort the contents of your backpack by item type (so that you can browse only the potions you're carrying, or only the weapons). Store all quest-related items separately so that you'll never find yourself in the ridiculous position of being unable to take on an interesting new quest because you had only two slots left in your bag.

Embark on an epic quest to complete the Tome of Knowledge and unlock Warhammer lore, detailed monster information, and major story plotlines.

RvR in WAR
RvR means Realm versus Realm. The concept was originally developed for Dark Age of Camelot, where it referred to large scale PvP that had a real effect on faction borders and zone control. Many people, including some Mythic representatives, still use the term RvR out of old habit when talking about large-scale PvP.



For WAR, RvR has been expanded into an umbrella concept that includes both PvP and PvE - all player activity will focus on, and contribute toward, the contest between the factions. The RvR game design means that PvE quests and PvP battles don't exist in their own bubble - they are both geared towards the greater war effort in some important way.

The game world is divided into two realms (Order vs. Destruction), each composed of a loose alliance of three disparate (and self-contained) armies. Among the armies of Order are the Human Empire, the dour Dwarfs, and the haughty High Elves. Among the armies of Destruction are the Human servants of Chaos, the brutish Greenskins (Orcs, Goblins, Squigs and their whole extended family), and the scheming Dark Elves. The RvR design means that these two opposing realms are pitted in a struggle for territory, pushing the engagement back and forth over three broad battlefronts. Each front is composed of 11 zones (for a total of 33) where the forces of Order and Destruction will meet, clash and bleed.

Mythic isn't trying to give us the entire world with those 33 zones. Each zone represents an iconic location, a region of the world that fans of the Warhammer series will recognize, where the armies will battle for resources or struggle to control. Of the 33 zones, 18 represent hotspots where the armies struggle for necessary supplies and resources, while 9 comprise the primary WAR fronts where the armies are battling for control in their efforts to reach and destroy the capitols of their enemy. The remaining 6 zones are the capitols of the six armies, where a successful campaign will culminate with burning, pillaging and slaughter.



The PvE and PvP activity of the player characters are part of the story, their victories and defeats directly contributing to the ongoing ebb and flow of the massive conflict. Players who never take part in PvP engagements, who spend their entire play time in PvE areas, will be participating in the RvR contest by pursuing quests directed at the war effort, contributing to zone control by overcoming enemy NPCs, disrupting lines of supply and enemy reinforcements, securing resources and activating NPC reinforcements for the players who are battling in PvP engagements.

In WAR, RvR is a design principle. All PvP is RvR. All PvE is RvR. Both are directed at defeating the enemy realm. RvR is both a design concept (everything should relate to the war effort) and a game mechanic (actions contribute value toward zone control along the main battle lines), and contrasts with games that are not focused on faction competition, where PvE and PvP both exist in bubbles that don't influence each other or the larger game.



Realms & Races:
When you get ready to enlist with an army and you take your first look at the two realms and their constituent armies, your first realization should be that none of the participants are champions of goodness. The 'spiritual' conflict in WAR does not focus on a struggle between good and evil, but rather a struggle between order and chaos. Chaos wants to change the world, to alter it or destroy and remake it, while Order wants to keep the world as it is. Both sides have shining champions who fight for noble causes and dark villains who seek only to fulfill their own petty desires, and both will occasionally do unsavory things to achieve their goals.

That is not to suggest that the armies of Destruction are misunderstood good guys - they are openly focused on destruction, conquest and slaughter. They LIKE what they are doing, they revel in it. What it does say is that the armies of Order aren't a whole lot better - they are merciless, unethical, sure of their superiority, proud of what they are doing and the methods they use.



These alliances have emerged out of convenience and necessity. None of the nations of Order or Destruction really like the people they are allied with - at best there is an overtone of superiority and contempt poisoning the relationship, as worst there is a hatred and murderous intent that is held in check purely for the duration of the current conflict. These aren't the cheery, sparkly fey folk of fairy tales, they're the angry, arrogant and violent denizens of the Warhammer world. Choosing an army for your character means accepting the grudges that are part of that racial heritage - Dwarfs vs. Greenskins, High Elf vs. Dark Elf, and Empire vs. Chaos.

Fans of the other armies of the Warhammer IP( Skaven, Bretonnians, Lizardmen, Ogres, Beasts of Chaos, Tomb Kings, Vampire Counts, Wood Elves) will be happy to know that the development team isn't completely neglecting them. Members of those races will be featured as NPCs in the game, and there is always hope for expansions - once the design team at EA Mythic has the resources to spare developing a new pairing and 11 world zones for them to fight over.

When you do finally pick a race for your character, you will be able to travel among and assist either of the two allies within your realm, though NPCs will react to your strangeness. Elves giving your Dwarf a Quest will notice and treat him differently than they would an Elf. While there will be no restrictions on content players can access when they travel abroad, it will offer a great source of humor.

War Fronts and Zone Layout
The two realms are engaging in a massive war across three broad battlefronts. Each battlefront is made up of 11 hotspots where the armies are engaged - six zones where they struggle for necessary resources, three zones where the main battle line slowly shifts back and forth as the armies vie for supremacy, and two army capitols.



The following schematic illustrates the division of zones by tier and the way the zones will be connected. The map shows how that will work in actual game play - the Tier 1 zones being Ekrund/Mt Bloodhorn, the Tier 2 zones being Barak Varr/Marshes of Madness, the Tier 3 zones being Blackfire Pass/Badlands, and the Tier 4 zones being Karak Kadrin/Black Crag, with Kareg Dren/Thunder Mountain Forming the Center and the army capitols at Karaz-A-Karak and Karak Eight Peaks:


The bottom three tiers on every war front will be composed of two zones, arrayed in pairs that allow players of the opposing realms to engage each other directly at any point in their career advancement. Players will be able to join the PvP conflict in their own zone, or travel to their enemy's zone to join the conflict there. Each of those zones contains both PvE and PvP (skirmish) areas, positioned right alongside one another; by standing in an appropriate spot, you'll be able to observe PvP without being a participant.

The Tier 1 zones will be 80% PvE content and 20% PvP content (battlegrounds, scenarios, red quests) - allowing the Tier 1 dwarves to directly confront the Tier 1 Orcs in the skirmish and battleground areas available in both Tier 1 zones.

The second two zones are for Tier 2 players, the next set for Tier 3 players, and the final (larger) set for Tier 4 players. As players advance, the battles become more significant and direct skirmishes more common (the skirmish areas grow larger while the PvE content shrinks, until - in the three tier 4 zones - we will be facing 20% PvE content and 80% PvP content), culminating in an end-game where the outcome of battles allows armies to conquer territory and eventually – if they do well – sack their enemy’s capital city.

The three zones between the capitols form the main battle line, where we struggle for territorial control in an effort to drive toward the enemy capitol. The middle of the three Tier 4 zones starts out neutral and appears to connect to all other central zones. Ownership of each of those zones will switch depending on the result of skirmishes, battlegrounds, and scenarios fought by the players in each zone.



Careers

The armies of each realm will each be launched with a set of four unique careers that exemplify the racial archetypes (for a total of twenty-four potential careers). The combination of careers available to each army is intended to reflect its unique personality (Orcs and Dwarfs get more warrior-focused careers, while Elves will likely get more academic and magic-focused careers) with the overarching goal of creating career sets that give each race an equivalent potential and the ability to be self-sufficient (Dwarfs should never need an elf).

Unlike the more traditional RPG class distinctions (tank, DPS, healer, buffer, crowd control), Warhammer will be dividing careers into tank (loaded up with armor and health designed to let them withstand big punishment), melee DPS (all about dishing out the punishment rather than taking it), ranged DPS (all about dishing out lots of damage from as far away as possible), and melee/healer (These aren't standoff clerics). They build up reservoirs of faith/fanaticism/waaagh (the power to cast spells) and gain access to their better heals only by actively dealing damage to the enemy. Efforts are being made to make sure no career can be relegated to a purely support role - everyone's a capable combatant with a place in the fight, everyone's a warrior.

Each and every career will be distinct in their abilities from the other careers of that same type (Greenskin tanks are being designed to operate in a distinct manner and have different abilities than Dwarfen, Elven and Empire tanks) - giving each realm three distinct careers designed to fulfill each of the recognized archetypes. The studio isn't trying to make a completely equitable game where all sides have perfectly equal analogs; they are happy to keep things a bit asymmetrical, as long as everything stays reasonably balanced and enjoyable.

Career Progression
Progression through the career will be through 4 tiers of 10 ranks each. Like any other MMO, progression will be achieved by wandering the world pursuing quests, battling enemies and earning experience. You will be able to advance from start to finish exclusively through PvP if you like - earning experience and loot drops for slaying enemy player characters - or without ever entering a PvP skirmish area. Rather than spending most of their careers laboring to eventually become strong enough to fight challenging battles against other players, player character's instead have the option to jump right into head-to-head, player-versus-player competition - no training wheels forced on your characters here. Those who choose not to head to the contested areas of the zone will find plenty of other things to do, gathering supplies for the war effort, disrupting enemy supply lines, crafting war materials and dealing with various disruptions to the war effort.



WAR will make use of a lateral character advancement system - characters will master new skills and abilities that give them more flexibility rather than gaining raw power (bonus hp, bonus defense value, bonus attack strength) as they advance in their career. A higher tier enemy will still most likely be able to smear you all over the terrain, but it will be because he knows more cool tricks (skills, tactics, morale abilities) and the player knows how to employ and manage them, not because your best attacks bounce harmlessly off him or because his lightest blows are fatal to you.

As character's climb through the ranks, they will have access to a large array of skill packages, each of which will have a defined progression path. They'll be able to work on three skill packages at any given time, gaining "experience" for those skills as they complete quests, kill monsters, or defeat other players in PvP. The packages allow players to select advancements that interest them without level-locking them. So, if you're a big fan of exploring and you want to get a mount earlier than - say - an improved combat ability, you can choose a package that includes the ability to use a mount. Packages will have SOME restrictions - most likely tier-specific - but they offer players the ability to wind up with all of the stuff they want eventually, but also the ability to get it in the order of their choosing. Once a skill package is mastered, they can choose another one to work on, be it the next package on the path, or an entirely different one. Your overall "tier" is a product of how many skills you've mastered, and this will factor in to your point value when it comes to PvP gameplay.



There will actually be 4 experience bars that allow you to select "packages" of advancements that you want to work on - three will be "standard" bars, one will be PvP-specific (likely called the renown bar and opening up new titles, equipment and abilities to those who accumulate renown by killing enemy player characters). The three standard bars will cover separate categories of skill development:

Primary Career Packages: Required skills, shared by all who pursue the career.
Secondary Career Packages: A wide pool of elective skills. This is where you can really customize your character, designing that Ironbreaker who likes to use muskets.
Specialization Packages: Not yet clearly defined, but apparently composed of 'style' skills that customize the way you fight. They've mentioned that packages might include custom emotes - those may be included in this category.

This unique career advancement system awards players several times per rank, rather than once every (or every other) level. Gaining unique abilities, tactics, morale options and more all occur at various times within a single rank (as each bar is individually filled). This means that you are never far away from earning your next new enhancement for your character.



Character Models, Silhouetting and Customization
A mantra at Mythic is "silhouetting", or visual profiling, which is to say that you should be able to look at an enemy and know what he is, what he does and roughly how powerful he is without resorting to checking UI text. The Mythic artists are using what they call the 20 ft. rule – you should be able to see everything you need to know about a character, including all the details and customization, from 20 feet away. They are less concerned about customizing the shape of a character’s eyes or chin, and instead focused on differentiating the “silhouette” of the individual character. It's a really big deal to ensure people are visually distinct and recognizable before they even fire off an ability. Especially if you want to have a more immersive experience that doesn't rely on reading character info to properly plan your strategies in a swirling melee of combat.
Each character should have an easily recognizable visual profile on three counts:

First Visual Profile is Race. Each race should be distinct - you shouldn't mistake a human for an elf or a chaos marauder from a distance.

Second Visual Profile is Career. It is Mythic's goal to make each career recognizable in some unique way - each will have some sort of visual gimmick that makes it easy to identify (Hammerer's hammers, Magus disks, witch hunter's hats).

Third visual profile is rank - characters will change as they grow more powerful. Warrior characters from all races will become more muscular as they climb ranks, Orc characters will actually get larger and more massive, while dwarf beards will get longer, fuller and more elaborate, the vile servants of Chaos will get "more vile", and everyone gets cooler-looking armor, weapons and gear. The intent is to make it possible to quickly identify who's the top dog in a churning battlefield from a distance, so that smaller, younger characters can marvel at the size of their accomplished brethren and know who to steer clear of without resorting to text floating over the head or by knowing the uber gear they're wearing. If you’re fresh out of the starting area and see a seven foot Orc with an array skulls impaled on his armor charging towards you, he’s probably going to kill you in horrible ways.



One of the most notable aspects of the Warhammer tabletop game is that the players would paint and customize their miniatures, and Mythic has definitely made a note of that. According to the creative team, it's important to them to allow a distinct appearance for each and every character that enters the game. Your character shouldn’t look like every other tier 4 character of your career out there. They want the players to be able to distinguish different characters from the moment they lay eyes on them. Mythic reps have said that if ten or fifteen Ironbreakers were lined up next to each other, though still recognizable as Ironbreakers, each should be unique and discernible.

Character customization is not going to focus on micro details like manipulating nostrils or the shade of your eyebrows, but rather about the larger, more easily perceived differences - the things other players can see and notice.



General Customization - Characters in the game will be customizable in a wide variety of ways: the expected variety of faces, scars, and hair, but also in areas such as armor coloring schemes. You'll be able to "turn on or off" bits of armor to customize its appearance, as well as tack on new pieces to complete the look. Don't like that metal pauldron, turn it "off" so it no longer shows or replace with a giant animal skull.

Accomplishments - Beyond that, players will be able to choose to tack little items onto their character that show off their might and accomplishments. You can gain Trophy Items from PvP to let you customize your armor for looks (and most likely not stats). For instance, if you're an Orc and you kill enough Dwarfs, you can adorn your armor with massive spikes, skulls, Dwarf beards, etc., to let everyone know exactly how high your kill count is. Each race will have different bling that can be tacked on in this way - Dwarfs may get medallions, ale tankards, and pipes, while others will use medals and achievements and armor ornamentation appropriate to their race to brag about their kill count.

Notes:
Mythic has stated that they may give us options to further customize our characters throughout the game - change the characters' haircut or add a scar or change the hair color.



Emoting and the Character Face
The Mythic design team is giving our characters a chance to express their personality in ways beyond full-body or voice/text emotes. Your WAR character will not be staring blankly ahead, but will instead express its emotions with a range of facial animations. As a player you will be able to set your character's mood, and everyone else will be able to see it - meaning you can give your character a brooding, sad or happy temperament (among others), and the world will know it. As you do things, your character grimaces and looks excited and otherwise changes expression to react to the activity.

There’s a little face-cam at the bottom of your UI, showing you an animated face portrait of your character so that you can see your own character's range of emotions as it reacts to events, rather than constantly staring at its backside.

While players should expect most commonly useful emotes to be available, they should also remember that the design team is doing their best to keep things focused on the conflict - some emotes are likely to be judged out of place. One good example of a common emote that the design team does NOT plan on doing is /dance. Mythic's own Paul Barnett has said that we will not see Michael Jackson dancing, we will not see medieval-based dancing, we will not see dancing! The only thing they have considered including when players type /dance is a camera pan that spins to give you a close-up of your character's face while your character swears at you! As much as they would love to do that, some people think that is probably inappropriate, so they’re just not going to have any /dance emote. To paraphrase Paul Barnett "And why aren’t we gonna have them (/dance emotes) I hear you ask…Because they’re CRAP! If you want to do that, play a game that does dancing, we are not a dancing simulator, it’s WAR!" and "Let me just explain to you how our design policy works. We put stuff in our game what we think is great and what Games Workshop thinks is great. And as pointed out by Games Workshop, they have yet to release any rules for dancing or any models that have anything to do with dancing. They just don’t. They just haven’t got any. They've got some crazy cheerleaders with nothing to do with dancing; and they have War Dancers - those are not dancing. They are chopping your head off, that’s Riverdancing with swords, they’re allowed to do that. The question was: “Why aren’t we doing it” We’re not doing it, because it’s RUBBISH!"

Notes:
Mythic reps have stated that over the course of your career, you may be able to unlock additional "emote" animations

Quests
Mythic is planning to launch with 1800 quests scattered across the two realms (900 each, 300 per faction), including a good supply of both PvE and PvP quests. Do not expect them to be made up of different versions of the same ‘kill 10 rats’ quest in each faction - each of those quests is being individually written to showcase the ‘flavor’ of the faction for which it is designed.



In addition to being written to fit the faction of the quest giver, quests are being designed to be tied closely to the ongoing war effort and to allow characters of different races to complete them in unique ways appropriate to the racial personality. The design team has made a point of limiting the quantity of 'collection' quests - quests to go gather x number of dwarf beards or goblin noses. Where collection quests do appear, players will find that every goblin with a nose on his face is willing to part with it after death - there will be no need to kill 200 goblin to get the 10 noses you need. It's worth noting that, when required to collect items to complete a quest, the plan is to track the items collected with the Tome of Knowledge, rather than taking up our valuable inventory space. Far more likely than collection quests, however, are quests that have us infiltrating an enemy compound, assassinating leaders, or capturing strategic locations.

All quests are going to be color coded according to their expected PvP content - Green Quests will be completely in PvE areas; Yellow Quests will be inside PvP (skirmish) areas of the zone but not require conflict with enemy players (you get in a skirmish, its your own bad luck); Red quests will be those that require you to face enemy players in the PvP areas of the zone (that's right, PvP Quests - go kill 10 enemy player dwarfs or; it's time to engage, go capture the gold mines, let battle begin!). This means you can see the nature of the Quest up front and select only those quests that fit your play style.



Quests will award characters with money, items, and experience, making it possible for players to advance however they want. The WAR team envisions an 80-20 split in favor of PvE (green) in the early game, slowly shifting to a 20-80 split in favor of PvP (yellow and red) in the late game. Still, no matter what path you take, you'll spend much of your time in the game neck-deep in the war effort.

The starting area for each faction, built around an "epicenter" (a key point of interest that can be the starting point for major quests), will be set close to the contested area of the zone where players will be able to encounter other players from hostile armies very early on. Those who choose not to head for the skirmish areas won't find themselves battling rats and lizards, but rather enemy NPCs pursuing operations against your people. As an Orc fresh from the pit, you can expect to be repelling dwarf assaults from day one.

At the end of each quest, Mythic is making sure that every character gets a useful reward... even if it's an Orc doing Dark Elf quest, he'll be able to get something that'll help him out.

Quests will come in four types:

Public Quests - Public Quests are collaborative efforts, automatically assigned to all players in the area when they begin or when you enter an area while they are in progress. Some are zone wide, while others are made available when you enter a specific location. They are repeatable and will be found in every zone of the game - from the starting areas to the tier 4 zones and the massive city zones - and include both PvE quests and massive PvP battles. The progress of Public Quests is scored on the whole. That is to say, if you need to collect 50 pieces of lumber or kill 50 militiamen, anyone in the area can help, it’s not entirely up to you. They follow a succession of quest objectives - completing one will initiate the next step (killing local militiamen may result in a new public quest to stop a column of enemy reinforcements). If a quest objective is not completed in a certain time limit the quest series will revert to a prior stage.

Public Quests will require player cooperation to complete - while individuals might be able to complete the first stage of a public quest series alone, more and more people will be required as the quest series progresses through its stages. Players will work towards a common goal without having to worry about being in an actual group. Those who participate in and help complete public quests will receive a variety of rewards such as money, experience, and fame/influence (a sort of reputation with local authorities within the zone, which they reward with basic, advanced, and eventually, elite quest incentives). While enemies defeated during quests will drop decent loot (randomly assigned depending on how much contribution people made to the public quest), that's just icing on the cake - the real rewards are the ones you'll get from the local authorities.

An example of a public quest is a massive catapult construction quest for greenskins. The catapult requires three resources: wood, rocks and goblins. The wood is gathered from a forest, the rocks from a mine and the goblins from a town. The first quest in the series send the players into the forest, which offers a steady source of trees, but if the players cut too many down, a group of nasty dryads comes out and starts harassing anyone collecting wood. The players in the zone will then be tasked with killing a certain number of dryads in a prescribed time limit. Once that's accomplished, the big mother dryad comes out and makes things really difficult. There are similar obstacles to the other quests in the series. The rock mines are guarded by Dwarven Slayers and the goblins are hesitant to wander past an Empire bandit camp between the town and the work site.



Another example is a public quest series that begins when a chaos character walks into a graveyard in the middle of an Empire town. The first public quest in the series is to kill the militiamen around the graveyard. When that is completed, a new quest begins to hold off militia reinforcements long enough to harvest a number of souls and summon a Tzeentchian demon. When that is done, a Public Quest begins to help the demon battle contingent of Bright Wizards who have responded to the local militia's call for help.

Conflict Quests - A specialized version of Public Quests, these are open to all players within the zone and require indirect competition between the two factions - pitting them against one another in competitive PvE activities. For example, Orcs may be told to kill as many of the dwarfen wounded on the battlefield as possible, while Dwarf players may be told to provide 'aid' (beer) and save as many wounded as possible; elsewhere, Dwarf players might be racing to build a stone wall while the Greenskins are trying to dismantle it. Only one side will be able to achieve its goal of killing/saving x number of dwarfen wounded. These happen without any direct combat between the players.

Personal/Branching Quests - Personal quests are quests you get privately from NPCs; the classic running errands, collecting items, making deliveries, etc. In each quest they're trying to make sure we'll have several options for completing the quests (One quest has the player stealing battle plans for the opposing army. He can either deliver them to the general to gain XP or sell them to a rival spy for cash. ), and your choices will result in a different 'next stage' - so two players may start with the same quest but end up doing totally different things unavailable to each other.




Christmas Quests - For the wanderers and explorers. Christmas quests are found in the odd places, the deep forests and the hidden caves, the places off the beaten track. They'll require minimal effort and give big rewards. (A goblin Wulfboy is found, complaining that they're lost and his wolf is starving. He asks you to help, stating he'd give his right arm if you'd help out. Chop off his right arm, feed the wolf, quest complete). Mythic has stated that when completing these types of quests you should expect high loot value rewards.

The Tome of Knowledge
The Tome Of Knowledge is a personal journal that will automatically take notes about everything in the game your character experiences. It is intended to be a history of your life within the game, a history that you can share with other people. Anything and everything that's a major event in your life as a player can appear here as unlocked information, an achievement, or an award.

There is a monster chapter that lists any creatures you've met and what you know about them. Players will start off with a basic beastiary that includes a concept art sketch of the monster. If told, for example, to go hunt Squigs in game, players can simply open the bestiary to see that squigs are little rubbery ball things with lots of teeth as well as some basic information about squigs. Meet and kill a giant for the first time and the number of killed giants will be added to your Tome. The more times you kill a certain creature, the more info about that creature is added to your Tome - weaknesses, habits, history, tactics for defeating them, etc. Finally, if you kill a lot of a specific creature (giants, wolves), you may eventually get some sort of title like "Giant Slayer" and/or unlock special tactics/morale abilities.



There is a chapter for tracking information on all of your quests, allowing you to sort the list, letting you see at a glance the area a quest takes place in, how far you've progressed towards each goal, the rewards for completing it and the actual dialogue from the individual who gave you the mission.

There is a chapter called "Leaders & Legends" listing all the famous NPCs you've met (you gain a bit experience for each entry, a reward for the explorers).

The Tome also lists all weapons, arms, and awards you've earned. It allows you to show that information (and presumably your creature kill count) to other players in order to do a bit of boasting.

Crafting
We don't know a lot about crafting in WAR yet, but we do know something about the design team's intent:

Statement of Intent: "I'm working on the crafting system right now and I can tell you this much, if we can pull off what I have in mind you'll be very, very happy. This is one game system that I'm aiming for "revolutionary " and not just evolutionary. While I normally prefer evolutionary systems (less risk) there are some systems that I really want to do something quite unique with and this is one of them. Most games, at best, are evolutionary, some are evolutionary with some revolutionary features and some, very, very few are truly revolutionary (though many devs love to boast about it for all their games in order to build hype). If we can create a fun game that is evolutionary with a number of revolutionary features, I'll be very happy."
- Mark



Some design goals that have been described to us:

All major crafting skills (leaving room just in case we want to do some pure "fluff" ones in the future) are being geared to the waging of battles both on the large and small scale - the manufacturing, repair, enhancement and improving of weapons, arms and equipment. Smiths should be able to make competitive products which can match up against even the best weapon drop.

Crafting will keep the Warhammer universe in mind: An Orc that runs around and collects flowers is hard to imagine. In Warhammer Online it will instead separate and collect the meat and bones of dead animals and opponents in order to make things.

The end game should have crafting that is useful.

The crafting system should not require you to create 100s of items to advance a level, rank, etc.

The system should not encourage farming, whether for loot or through the crafting system.

There should be a wide range of items available for creation and use.




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Combat
Warhammer Online will make use of the classic hot-bar actions and timers typically found in the MMO genre but will change the dynamic a bit (with no massive crowd control, no long-term buffs and "no stealth as we've known it in other MMOs") and add a few new layers to the combat process.

Dealing Damage - One of the big innovations planned is to make weapon damage and fighting ability damage independent. The guiding metaphor is that an Ogre with a spoon should still be able to kill you, while snotling with a big magical halberd shouldn't.

Tactics Bar - Tactics are the preparations you make before you engage your enemy. Each character will have a tactics bar (also occasionally called strategy bar) with a few empty slots. The player will be able to fill those empty slots with tactics - essentially pre-loaded buffs that you can adjust prior to key engagements, letting you determine how you'd best like to fight. Tactics can be things like persistent buffs, race or mob-specific attack bonuses - from adding fire damage or frost defense, to increasing your ranged abilities or shortening your spell recovery time. Tactics can be stacked - added to the tactics bar multiple times to duplicate the effect. Some tactics take up one slot, some take up more. As you advance, you gain more slots and more tactics, and older tactics start taking up fewer slots.

The idea is to plan out which tactics you want to bring into battle before you get down and dirty. You can equip and unequip these based on the enemies you expect to face. This is useful in that you can strengthen yourself towards a particular enemy or just tailor your abilities to your own play style. By and large, it's a matter of fitting the right tactics for the right situation.



A spellcaster, for instance, might choose the Fast Spell Recovery tactic, granting him or her the chance to fire off spells more quickly. They might supplement this with a tactic that increases the range of all of their spells, or one that increases the damage of all fire-based spells. If the spellcaster is in a large group (and feeling particularly charitable), he or she might opt for a leadership tactic that confers a bonus on the entire group. We're not sure yet how the tactics are acquired but we do know that players will get access to more tactics and have more slots on the strategy bar as they level up. As an added bonus, some particularly large tactics might shrink as you level up, allowing you to pack even more tricks into your strategy bar.

Notes: It has been stated that earning some tactics may require action - killing a certain number of wolves to unlock a tactic that gives you bonuses against wolves, for example.

Combat (the Action Bar) - Combat makes use of the classic hot-bar actions and timers. The game does employ auto-attack, allowing your character react to attack and automatically keep pounding on enemies much like any other MMORPG. The hot-bar abilities may vary depending the tactics you prepared.

Most systems only allow you to do one thing at a time. You have a resource (like mana or power), and you have actions that operate on a global timer, which are constrained by things like cost, casting time, recast time and so on. Multiply by two. Mythic has added the concept of a second layer (a second global timer), giving you the ability to use multiple abilities in the same overlapping time pool, for the potential double whammy.

Each ability on the bar requires a certain number of action points from your character's action point pool. While weaker abilities might be used in quick succession, the most powerful abilities require lots of action points, quickly depleting your pool.



Morale - Each character has a Morale meter - a semi-circle in the center-bottom of the UI marked by several special morale ability icons – that begins with no morale value when combat is engaged. Morale builds as you fight - the more people in your group, and the more enemies you fight, the faster it builds. Naturally, losing a fight or taking a large amount of damage will lower morale.

As your morale meter fills up past each ability icon, you gain access to five successive levels of career-specific morale abilities. Morale abilities are really cool things that happen, dramatic, game-changing combat moments that give the game’s battles a real jolt. In most MMOs, even the simplest buff brings down insane bling. Normal combat does not in Warhammer, but morale moves do. They keep things interesting.

A big part of the combat dynamic will be deciding whether you want to spend this morale bit by bit to activate low power abilities or save it all up to unleash massively powerful abilities later on. As an example, the dwarf engineer can spend a little morale to call in some off-site cannon to smash a nearby foe. Should he choose to save up the morale, he can eventually unleash a salvo capable of beating down the doors of an enemy capital.

Players can gain additional morale actions as they progress down their career paths and and by specializing. Morale powers can be swapped out by the player - you will be able to learn different morale powers and select which ones you want in your morale bar.



Once combat ends, morale quickly fades away.

Combat Physics (Collision and Momentum) - Certain combat physics will effect the way the game is played. First, moving fast creates momentum that will prevent immediate stops, and getting up to full speed takes a moment while you accelerate from standing still to a run. Momentum also means a turn radius while moving - a relatively minor mechanic and most players won't notice it, but the jump-spin-fire-spin-land-run moves some people have mastered in other games are out.

The game will include player collision detection in PvP areas - avatars won't be able to walk through each other - making combat a little more of a tactical affair where getting past that Black Orc blocking the hallway to get at the shaman behind him means actually taking him down. Trying to rush through a shield-wall of Ironbreakers is a plan you’ll never opt to try TWICE.

Reports have indicated that Collision Detection isn't like sliding along a zone line - if you run into another player you don't slide, you stop, and a determined player keeping himself in front of you can keep you from moving past him.



Death and Fate Points
Death in Warhammer Online will take place on very generous terms. There will be no "resurrection sickness." Players will not lose equipment or items when they die. The only penalty on death will be a time delay in getting back to the game, in order to keep people from employing zerg tactics.

According to reports (from scenarios battles), when your character dies a box will pop up on your UI; you will click the box to respawn five seconds later back at the starting point of the scenario, or wait and automatically respawn after a delay of approximately 45 seconds. It has been suggested that, if there is no penalty for death beyond time delay, players may choose to 'die to heal'. In practice, reports tell us that characters regenerate health and action points so fast that such tactics are simply unnecessary - characters are healthy, on their own and without potions in very little time.

How respawns (and respawn locations) will be handled outside of scenarios isn't known at this time.

Note:
It has been reported that, when you die, a gravestone may be erected on the location with remarks on your death, who killed you, and how.

Note:
Previously, a Fate Point system for player death was discussed. While it appears that option has been abandoned, these were the details: Each character would have a pool of fate points that could be used save him from death (cheating death and continuing the fight at the very same point that he 'died') as well as used in certain "movie moments", such as jumping across a giant ravine. One way of gaining fate points would be through community quests.

Characters who have no remaining Fate Points would be struck down, and character death would drive you crazy — literally. The character would be resurrected at a designated location and will accrue Insanity Points. Each death-ish mishap would bring the character closer to the brink of insanity. Die too often and the accumulated insanity points would begin to have negative effect, either draining the amount of experience the character earns or temporarily inflicting attribute penalties. Insanity points would slowly fade, but would be removed quicker by taking part in special PvE quests.



PvP: Skirmish Areas
One of the core design concepts behind WAR is that most people don't really hate PvP - they hate meaningless PvP, and they hate PvP that interrupts them while they're having fun with something else. Most players want something to fight over or an objective to pursue - they want motivation and concrete results. Why am I attacking this Dwarf keep? Oh, because it'll get me closer to sacking their city, and throwing tomatoes (and snotlings) at their king. Why am I fighting people in this area? Oh, because they're trying to take this area away from us.

Therefore, in WAR your character is part of an army, and that army is engaged in an epic conflict that can (and likely WILL) bring the war directly to your front door. That grand, enormous capital city you're running around in today could be a ruined tomb tomorrow if you and your fellows do not defend it tooth and nail. To do so, you'll be given the chance to push deeper and deeper into enemy territory until you finally reach THEIR capital, at which point you'll lay siege to it and - if successful - do terrible, terrible things to the huddled, whimpering survivors of the siege.

All PvP is consensual. Mythic's goal is to give players a reason to go out and experience the excitement of battling real, live players without restricting them to countless replays of the same "seize the windmill" content. Large PvP (Skirmish) areas are clearly marked and present in every zone, positioned in such a way to allow the PvE-only players to look across a bridge or into a fortress and see the bloody fun their PvP mates are having without them. The layout offers a chance for more cautious players to witness and slowly grow accustomed to the added danger and excitement of facing off against something other than NPC's. Some early quests will ask you to enter an RvR-flagged region of the world to hunt for a specific NPC or accomplish some task. Later quests will ask you to enter an actual contested battlefield area and contribute to your army's efforts. Eventually, you'll be asked to go out and hunt down enemy players. By that point, the design team is confident that players will be enjoying themselves so much that they'll be 100% ready to go out and take part in the larger-scale PvP content.

Before you worry that you'll accidentally stumble into danger, the limits of each area are clearly marked. For example, there is a river that pretty much bisects the area and you can stand on one side of the river and you are in your PvE world and essentially the other armies cant hurt you; you're safe and can fight monsters and go on your quests and if you are an Orc you don't have to worry about some Dwarf coming up and killing you. However, if you look across the river you can see Orcs and Dwarfs battling each other because that is a skirmish area. Another map is made up of ravines and plateaus. PvP combat takes place in the ravines and the PvE missions all take place on top of the plateaus which is cool for players who have not experienced PvP before. They can sit and view what is going on; see what it is like, become familiar with it all and realize it is not that intimidating. Other skirmish areas will simply be marked off by visible signs like a red mist around the border. The UI itself will also take action to keep you aware of your environment - the minute you step a toe into a skirmish area you get a huge red flashing message saying YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO CHANGE YOUR MIND… NINE… EIGHT… etc.



Leave the skirmish area and another timer will begin a five minute count down to the moment your PvP flag will vanish. Not until this flag decays are you safe from PvP. This system, designed to prevent long-range attackers from peppering enemies from the fringe and stepping back out of the skirmish area whenever danger approaches, means that PvP conflicts can "spill out" of skirmish areas as someone leaves, gets hit (resetting their PvP flag timer), and fires back at their pursuit (resetting their time). If you're an innocent outside the skirmish area whose PvP flag isn't on at all, it's not a threat, but it means that truly epic battles can spill out anywhere in the world.

PvP won't be confined to the endgame. The starting area for each faction, built around an "epicenter" (a key point of interest that can be the starting point for major quests), will be set close to the skirmish area of the zone where players will be able to immediately encounter characters from hostile armies. Since the starting zone for each race butts right up against the starting zone for their opposing race, you'll have plenty of opportunity to fight it out right from the start. The result is that most players should have a nice, seething hatred for their racial enemy before they even get out of the tier 1 zone.

If you're now worrying about the potential of high ranked players coming back to the low-ranked skirmish areas for some griefing fun, don't - the RvR system is being very carefully constructed to push back against behavior like that. If a fourth tier character comes into a first tier skirmish area, he'll find that he doesn't get flagged for PvP and can't attack - and that he's earned a debuff that makes him vulnerable to the low level guys.

These skirmish areas are being designed so that PVP battles, which can be intimidating for newer players, will take place a safe distance away from regular foot traffic, and will be completely optional... but very visible. Players will be able to play through their entire careers without participating in PVP battles, but it's Mythic's hope that, by making PVP so accessible (and by including quests that involve entering and participating in the PvP areas), players will want to jump into the fray early on.



Activity in the skirmish areas takes three forms:

Skirmishes - Skirmishes are incidental, unstructured engagements that happen when players on opposing sides run into each other within the skirmish area. While not noticeably different from random PvP encounters in other games, incidental combat in Warhammer Online is notable in that killing players will give experience and loot and will also be the objective of both private and public quests.

Battlefields - Battlefields are hotspots in the persistent world - key areas of value or interest within the skirmish area such as a ruined Dwarf village that may have some resources that are valuable to both sides, mines, lumber mills or temples. Players will be drawn to these hotspots from both sides. When they get there, in order to acquire resources or accomplish quest goals, they'll have to engage in combat with enemy players who are there pursuing their own desperate agenda. Mythic is thinking in terms of battles numbering around 500 participants.

Scenarios - Battles that are instanced, focused around specific objectives and evenly matched by the server. They have been described as small, fast, team-based engagements lasting between five and ten minutes, designed for teams of between 6 and 36 players. Reports indicate that each zone will contain between 2 and 4 unique scenario-style instances, with 40 or so spread out across all of the zones and covering a wide range of gameplay types and objectives.



Each scenario will be a point-based affair in which players will earn points by killing members of the opposing team and by completing scenario objectives. Scenarios end either when one team reaches a certain number of points or when time runs out. A score-tracker and timer appear on your HUD to show you just how each side is doing.

In the Warhammer tabletop games, each unit has a value. A rank and file Orc may only be worth a couple of points, but an Orcish hero would be worth ten times as many. True to Warhammer's legacy, Scenario's are all about the player "point" value (based on character rank and abilities, equipment and enchantments, and total RvR renown). A given scenario might have, say, a 1000 Battle Point limit; thus, you could end up with 5 very powerful guys fighting 15 less powerful people.

If you've ever waited in a queue because the battleground population was unbalanced, cursing and complaining until you were either miraculously transported into the fight or died of boredom, you understand why Mythic wants to keep queue times to a minimum - the goal is that in less than one minute a player should be actively engaged in the scenario and assigned a group. Mercenary units called Dogs of War (low point value npc characters that will behave according to the goals of the scenario) will be on hand to make up for any point deficiencies and allow the scenario to start without delay. The server will queue up a certain number of players, assign a point value to them, and then buttress their force with dogs of war. This helps ensure that one side will not be permanently outnumbered and that factions with a larger population can always have opponents.

These A.I. combatants will follow the party leader of their side and are set to whatever level, gear, and abilities would best balance out the two sides. They can be any class, but the class is specifically chosen by the game to fill out any gaps in the team's roster of players. Your team has a bunch of mages and melee classes? The Dog of War will be a healer and follow your party around to heal its teammates. We don't know yet if you can give any sort of rudimentary orders to these AI units, such as to defending an objective or trying to take another.



The Campaign
All these quests, skirmishes, battles and scenarios aren't contained in their own bubble; with each win, your realm gains victory points and gets closer to controlling the zone. Gain enough victory points and the zone will start to show it (in a zone where your objective is to destroy a city, the city might stay destroyed as long as you maintain control). Each tier will have its own unique battlefront, but a percentage of victory points from the tier 1 battlefront will spill over into the tier 2 battlefront, a percentage of victory points from tier 2 will spill over into tier 3, and a percentage of victory points from tier 3 will spill over into tier 4.

At the highest tier of the game the realms fight over nine massive contested zones and six zone-sized capital cities - three zones and two capitals on each of the three tier 4 battlefronts. The goal on these battlefronts is to push the battle line forward zone by zone until you can sack the enemy capital cities. The fight starts in a neutral (or more accurately, heavily contested) zone halfway between the two capital cities. Win loads of victories there and ownership will tilt in your favor, locking down the scenarios, battlefields and public quests in that zone while opening those in your enemy's tier 4 zone and pushing the action closer to their capital. Earn enough victory points to gain control of that zone and the enemy capital itself will be open to attack.

Marching forward, you lay siege to the city, break down the gates (most likely a series of scenario-like siege-instances) and battle past the inner keep (another series of siege-instances). That done, with the city's massive gates now broken and wide open, the warriors of your realm will swarm into the city - rampaging through the streets, killing merchants, hunting enemy leaders and national treasures, engaging in intense street to street PvP combat for glory, experience, money and unique (pillage-only) weapons, armor, and gear.

Once the gates have been broken, a variety of Public Quests for both the attackers and defenders will activate. An attacker's goal might be to dowse the great Dwarfen forge (it's an act that the Orcs would love to do as an insult if nothing else) or to capture the enemy King (something that appears to be the culmination of a public quest series that will require the defeat or capture of a series of sub-bosses or locations). Enemy rulers who are defeated while sacking a city will be captured and escorted back to your capitol city (most likely marked like a beacon on enemy maps and under constant attack from enemy players trying to rescue them), placed in some sort of stocks and humiliated until the enemy manages to pull off a rescue raid and escort him home.



Armies won't be camping inside an enemy city forever. You'll break in, kill everyone, steal all their stuff and then march out of the burning ruins (preferably to go to the NEXT enemy city and do the same thing to them). To that end, various measures for driving the attacking force out of the city after some pre-determined period (variously reported as lasting somewhere between 2 hours and 2 days) have been discussed - the final solution will likely consist of one or a combination of these:

The server will start spawning in AI reinforcements (a few at first, but then in ever greater numbers).
Various internal gateways will be recaptured and closed one at a time, cutting those within off from reinforcements and allowing the defenders to clean out the lingerers area by area.
The server will start granting stacking bonuses to the defenders of a city, so that after a few hours even the lowest tier characters will be able to fight toe-to-toe against the max tier invaders.
Declining loot and reward bonuses for the defenders - the sooner they take their city back, the more loot and favor they'll gain.

When it's all done and the enemy has finally been pushed from the city, ownership of the intervening zones will be reset so that the battle can begin anew. One, or both, of the following will likely occur: the losing side will experience negative ramifications that will carry over into the next Campaign, or; the conquering side will experience worldwide faction buffs that will carry over into the next Campaign. Exact details haven't been revealed. Though a dominant enemy could technically fight their way back to sack the city again right away, the plan is to impose a 'recovery' period - a period of time before the city will again offer enough loot and wealth to make sacking it worthwhile.

All the loot you grabbed? You get to keep that.

any questions?

Shadowrender wrote:

any questions?

To be honest.. yes, am I supposed too actually read that all?

Well it explains a lot if yourhungry for information

but you don't have to ofc

Can't you make the text a bit more fun to read, perhaps Colours and Pictures?

That would be a nice idea! ^^

Also add Pink Fluffy bunnies!

Err, No..

Awwwwh, why not!? me want cuddewy fwuffy bunnies

il try and add pics after homework

curse you foul schoolgoing!

there halfway, il finish up later

Looks better already

Indeed, much more fun too read it now =P

there finished

It's awfully hard to come by images of a game that isn't released yet

enjoy, I hope someone reads it now

Totally awesome post here!

On October 9, 2007 - MMORPG.com held a developer chat transcript with the team from EA Mythic. Here, with very little editing . . and in its entirety . . . is the transcript

Quote:
<MMORPG_Taera> Heresy-Darnewl :asks: Hi! what will the crafting system in war comprise of?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Justin> The crafting system will be awesome, but unfortunately I can't go into any details about it right now. Sorry

<MMORPG_Taera> :asks: Have you planned a system to balance Order/Destruction ratio on a given server?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Ah, balance.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> One of the ways you cope with (inevitable) population imbalances is to recognize that you can't avoid them.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> And then plan around that.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> We've done that from the beginning, especially in RvR areas.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> One of the main reasons we chose to do instanced, controllable scenarios was to help mitigate the impact of that imbalance on any given server.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> So an underpopulated realm will always have a good chance at defending and attacking in RvR due to the balancing that scenarios can offer.

<MMORPG_Taera> Sinkael :asks: My question is this, when DAoC came out and for some time afterward, there was a feeling of realm pride that slowly faded as time went on and people started realm hopping between realms. This realm pride was one of my favorite "features" of DAoC and I want to know what you are doing to foster this, if anything at all.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Eek. Another question!
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Okay. My slow reading skills have now caught up.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> "Alt-itis" is hard to avoid.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> And, to be honest, not necessarily a bad thing in all cases.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> But one of the major ways we intend to foster that sense of pride and place and belonging is via the guild system.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> We're aiming to build into the guild experience a sense of purpose and direction that will make it worthwhile to stick with a guild long-term.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> That said, we certainly hope people try lots of things out in-game.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Since... well... we love the whole thing and want people to see what we've been building.

<MMORPG_Taera> Godban :asks: how big will the groups/party/raids will be?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Looks like I'm up
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Groups currently at 6 people, we are supporting larger raid or "battlegroups" for RvR scenerios etc however the final size is YTB
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> We'll be locking that down after we get a good feel for the needs of a large scale event

<MMORPG_Taera> malfeasin :asks: Are instances only going to be used in RVR, or are there PVE instances as well, and more importantly, will there be an emphasis on open world dungeon adventuring in PVE? Yay open world dungeons!
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> The VAST majority of instances will be RvR-related. However, in dungeons you'll have single-group boss encounters as well as "final" multi-group instances to tackle.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> but those are limited to the bosses

<MMORPG_Taera> RWP :asks: Character Customization is a BIG thing for me in MMOs, what are you doing to make sure players can give their characters unique looks to their characters and make them match their personal feel? Not just in faces etc but in armor as well. No one likes looking the same as every other bugger out there!
<[WAR]EAMythic_Justin> We're putting in several ways to make player's stand out ...
<[WAR]EAMythic_Justin> one way is to allow players to attach trophies to their armor
<[WAR]EAMythic_Justin> another is to allow dyeing of armor
<[WAR]EAMythic_Justin> with those and the alrhe number of armor sets we have planeed...
<[WAR]EAMythic_Justin> players will be able to cultivate some very exiting looks
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> To add to Justin's comments, Please keep in mind that we're looking for a very unique shilloute to each character, that also means you'll get a number of unique options at character creation as well specifically geared toward you're career Smiling Orc

<MMORPG_Taera> Farlin :asks: What elements of WAR online will keep the casual player engrossed, especially at the end game, besides the public raids?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Because scenarios are something that you can plan to participate in for a set and definite amount of time, they're PERFECT for casual gamers. Have half an hour while dinner is cooking? Hop in and hit a couple of quick scenarios.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> And since they're all over the world, from beginning to end, there's never a time when you WON'T have something to contribute there.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Of course, all of the standard content is still "casual-friendly" - especially things like Public Quests.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> No need to run around LFG'ing all night long.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Run on into the PQ, participate as little or as much as you like, and leave.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> You get rewarded for what you give to the effort, but don't have to stick around all night to do so.

<MMORPG_Taera> Adessi :asks: How will communcation work between factions?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Via rude hand signals.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> "Verbal" communication won't work cross-faction.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Which is a good thing, in our experience.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> People can get... salty in the thick of battle.

<MMORPG_Taera> asdasd :asks: One of the big motivationfactors in DAoC was that one group (8 ppl) of well played characters was able to kill 30+ players at once if they knew exactly what they were doing. Do you have such things in mind when developing WAR? Is skill as important in WAR as it was in DAoC?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> WAR is a bit diffrent from DAOC in terms of quantity of players a really good group can take down.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> In general we're limiting AoE type abilities
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> And playing with the style of them
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> In general outside of morale you won't be able to hit more then 9 or so targtes
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> and in alot of cases we've done diffrent types of ranges and AoE shapes, Cone AoEs, Long Line AoEs, Hits 2 + nearby targets etc
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> So in WAR a well planned group could roll through a number of opponents
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> but they won't Be able to roll up and Mez 30 people then nuke them all down Aka DAOC

<MMORPG_Taera> Feigro :asks: <Is renown only gained the PvP, i.e. killing players?>
<[WAR]EAMythic_Justin> Yeah, you get renown only from RvR activities.

<MMORPG_Taera> rhilir :asks: so when are you going to tell us the last 2 elf races for each side
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Short answer: "Later." Long answer: As with all of our goodies and secrets, EVIL MARKETING has a grand scheme in place for the delivery of all major revelations of content, features, details, etc.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Jordan> ((whip crack))

<MMORPG_Taera> Chiram :asks: Little has been said about the Guild/Regiment system and how players will be able to ally. Is there a limit to how many other guilds you can ally with? can you name a few of the features, if any that the regiment system will obtain.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> I'm taking this out of a sense of human decency.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Guilds are a major feature that we intend to unveil in detail later this year.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> As we announced earlier this week, in preparation for the Guild Beta, we've shut down the beta server for a while.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Running up to the re-opening of beta (and Guild Beta phase one) we'll start to announce details on the system.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> So, rest your fingers regarding guild stuff for now. We're keeping that under our hats for a bit longer.

<MMORPG_Taera> Daphtendreik :asks: Will there be something similar to most other MMO's in the category of Mounts?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Ahh the mount question
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> So there are a few things I can say and alot I can say (Big suprise there)
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> CAN'T say
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> shhhh
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> I am Adam's translator.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> editor person like
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Anyhow
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> WAR will have mounts as a form of transportation, just like many other MMO's
<WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> said mounts will be player owned. In addition we have a stack of additional neat features in store for player mounts
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> however like guilds we're holding that close to our chest to be released in future updates

<MMORPG_Taera> Jaide :asks: This is kind of two questions in one - but are there any details on the customizable addons and UI mods? If so do you have any information on what language they will be written in?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> DISCLAIMER: Carrie is the Mistress of all things UI-ish and will pull my lips off if I get this wrong. With that said, yes. There will be a fully customizable UI in place. It's all LUA-based, as per the standard UI such and such, so anyone who's working on mods for "OTHER GAMES" will be right at home modding for WAR.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> <--- Currently Mod's his UI at work and he's not even a programmer Smiling Orc

<MMORPG_Taera> Osyshnir :asks: Will there be a /anon feature?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Yes.

<MMORPG_Taera> Thunder :asks: Are there any plans for releasing more beta codes in the near future?
<[WAR]EAMythic_James> As we just announced we're taking a couple of months to focus on improving the game. But in december you can bet we'll be welcoming a lot of new people once things start rolling again
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> As a side note some of us will be out in Baltimore for the Grand Tournement again.. those of you who read the newsletter know what happened in Vegas (hint hint)

<MMORPG_Taera> NHB-Kromlech :asks: Where are you guys planning on taking open-world RvR (read: pvp) with the 2 months?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Why, TO THE EXTREEEEME, of course. Seriously, we're just sitting down to start responding to the TREMENDOUS response and feedback we received via the beta up to this point.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> RvR - open field and otherwise - will be getting a significant amount of attention.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> We're listening - openly and with a good heart - to what our testers told us and responding accordingly. Beyond that, unfortunately, I can't provide details.

<MMORPG_Taera> Atrax :asks: Do you think, the world we're playing in, is large enough? Comparing to DAOC?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> It depends on what year you're comparing us to
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> WAR is going to be a pretty large game, with alot of content and places to vist. In general our Zones are larger and more intresting than DAOC
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Admitedly in terms of sheer landmass WAR is not going to launch larger then a veteran MMO with multiple expansions Smiling Orc

<MMORPG_Taera> repo :asks: will u be able to point and click aswell as use tghe aswd keys for pve?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> You can use the mouse to move around, but it won't be a "ckick on the ground -> move to that spot" set-up.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> er
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> click, rather

<MMORPG_Taera> Desetes :asks: Will WAR have a PVE end-game? For example, raiding?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> There's plenty of high end PvE content. Dungeons, massive sewers (I wonder who migth be down there?), high-end PQs, etc.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> That said, we fully expect people to be drawn into the RvR campaign rather organically as well.

<MMORPG_Taera> Zvyr :asks: Will the game incorporate universal cooldowns or will you opt for a different system like DAoC?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Universal Cooldowns are pretty critical to good presentation and balance. We will in general have a shared cooldown for 90% of the actions in the game
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> This is to protect against crazy animation clobbering and FX bloat, as well as give people a chance to think and react to things in the world
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> that being said we are working dilligently on diffrent types of pacing for each career. Some of this will come from additional cooldown times but alot of it will come from resorurce managment

<MMORPG_Taera> Project :asks: Will there be an incentive to group with other players to complete quests or explore pve content, aside from the obvious benefit of an added sword as it were. I.E. XP bonus or some such addition
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> No. The benefits of grouping are sufficient in and of themselves and we certainly don't want to "penalize" players who prefer to solo by making things inordinately harder for them, even one on one.

<MMORPG_Taera> dreamsensei :asks: My fiance and I are considering rolling dwarves, but she's curious about the equivalent of the "bigger beard" that the female dwarf would get for becoming more powerful. What is the female equivalent for dwarves in that regard?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Hrmm
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> So dwarven ladies have things to look foward to as well
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Like dwarf males they'll have better endowed.. err how do I put this
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> starts with a B
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> errr
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Braids!

<MMORPG_Taera> [Scorn]Anom :asks: Will the Chosen class get a 'Builder' such as Black Guard's Hatred and Ironbreaker's Grudge?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> The Chosen is a battlefield commander. He places himsefl strategically on the battlefield and uses auras (pulsing AOE spells) to debuff opponents. If you're familiar with "twisting," skilled players will be able to twist multiple spells at once.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> The Chosen represents a diffrent type of playstyle
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> in general we may have 2 or 3 Tank Archetype careers
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> However each of those offerings represents a diffrent style of play
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Some may rely on stances, other twisting auras or commands, or combo chains
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> so that being said No builders for the Chosen Smiling Orc

<MMORPG_Taera> zekeode :asks: <Is there going to be any sort of treasury? (chests,boxes,crates etc.)>
<[WAR]EAMythic_Justin> There will be lots of chest-style things for players to plunder. All the loot from a PQ ends up in a chest, for example.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Justin> And players will be able to find chests to open in cities. plus, there will be banks to hold stuff in too.

<MMORPG_Taera> The_Dispsoed :asks: Will there be lots of skills for each class in the game?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Short Answer is Yes
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> We've got a number of choices both active and passive for players to choose from. Right now for example each career has over 30 tactics to pull from

<MMORPG_Taera> Gobblox :asks: Will there be a mutiplayer?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Yes. It is written that there shall one day come a hero. A warrior of untold strength and wisdom. At they shall be the one. They shall be... THE MULTIPLAYER.

<MMORPG_Taera> Feldron :asks: The pod casts shows greenskins vs dwarfs, order vs chaos, high elves vs dark elves, But will there be any fights with like Dwarves vs High Elves or any other combination
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> There will never, ever be large scale RvR battles between allied factions.

<MMORPG_Taera> TanK_ :asks: will there be any high-res texture packs sometime after release?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Alot of the artwork in WAR is built to scale. That being said we are working at higher resolutions for alot of game art. We haven't yet decided the final res assets that will be shipped with the game
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> however as usual expect improvments as we go along

<MMORPG_Taera> [Scorn]Arkane :asks: Will any classes have a mini-map 'tracking' style ability, or can you actually plan stealth into your tactics by sneaking around or waiting to ambush.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> In short we've given players ways to keep track of targets in a battle
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Alot of these options aren't linked to a single career
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> for example EVERYONE has the option of pulling up the targeting ring HUD
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> which places arrows at the player's feet that point out direction of a number of diffrent targets
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> both friendly and fow
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> foe even
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> with that in mind you still need to be able to select you're target to track their location so you will be able to sneak around and catch people off guard

<MMORPG_Taera> Medwynd :asks: After seeing some of the large scale pve zones I am wondering if they will need to be progressed through all at once or else they will reset or if you can do them in parts
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> PvE content is divided into Chapters. The Chapters are set up to be level-appropriate for players who progress through them in a linear fashion. You CAN move ahead if you wish, but the content in those areas will (obviously) be very difficult for you if you do.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> With that said, you can jump back and forth between pairings, so you may do a few chapters in one pairing, then hop over and do comparable chapters in another pairing.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> You'll be able to pick and choose as you see fit. Or do it all.

<MMORPG_Taera> Wrenn :asks: This is Wrenn from warhammerconflict.com. My question is about death penalties. Will there be any kind of penalty for death to NPC's and/or human players? In addiction, will there be any kind of lingering weapon/armor damage?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> There will be a death penalty in WAR, however we're still playing with what we want it to be and how significant it will be
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> our goal with death is to not make it horrible for the player and ruin their play session. But also to keep Zerg tactics to a minimum

<MMORPG_Taera> LoS-Auku :asks: From The Legion of Steel's guild member Auku: How is it going with the devlopment of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Splendidilicious.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Justin> Swimmingly!
<[WAR]EAMythic_James> swimmingly!
<[WAR]EAMythic_James> What
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> WHAT?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> NOOOO!!!!
<[WAR]EAMythic_James> Waaaagh?!?!
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> I've only had 2 fatalities on the team.. So I'd say we're doin pretty good
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> CHAOS QUESTION!!! RUUUNN!!!!!
<[WAR]EAMythic_Jordan> wow
<[WAR]EAMythic_Justin> stop pretending to be British James!
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> ohh wait err
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> up everything is just fine
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> *ahem*
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> nothing to see here
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Development is a party. All day, every day.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Sometimes its a SLUMBER PARTY!

<MMORPG_Taera> Stingray :asks: Ok could you give us some details on the Magus’ “Feed My god” Ability which from I hear turns dying enemy players into Horrors/Spawns. If this is a real ability is the Horror a NPC that just attacks whatever it feels like or can the Magus control it and tell it what to attack? PS Game looks good keep up the good work.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> looks like I'm up again
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> The Magus does have the ability to summon Deamons
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> First of all, Adam ORIGINALLY called it "Feed my Gersh." And he insisted that we all had to buy him lunch once a week...
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> however the chaos gods are fickle so the magus has little to no control over them

<MMORPG_Taera> Kother :asks: When buying tactics and morall skills will you be able to pay in game money to get your points back if you regret your decision?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Obviously, there will be a mechanism for respeccing in place. We're not offering final details on it at the moment, however.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> We want decisions to be meaningful, but bad decisions shouldn't be permanent
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> That said, the tactics system actually helps to mitigate the need for respeccing by offering flexibility and variation to players without requiring a full-blown respec.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Also, what Gersh said.


<MMORPG_Taera> s0ull :asks: Is WAR planning on adopting a Rock, Paper, Scissors style of balance. Or are you trying for a different approach to PvP balance?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> We've decided to go for 'Hungry Hungry Hippos' balancing.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Rock< Scissor <Paper
<[WAR]EAMythic_James> I tried to push parcheesi though
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Witchhunter > all
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> err
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> or somthing
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> DUDE. PUBLIC CHANNEL.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> hehe
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> ok real answer
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> the basic balance always can be compared to Rock Paper Scissors
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> however imagine our task is to balance 5 games of rock paper sissors all at once
[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> So many rocks to the head...
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> So many scissors... well, also to the head.

<MMORPG_Taera> Zucker :asks: Will stuns/dissorients work on normal NPCs and bosses as well?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> And the paper... not as absorbant as you'd imagine.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Yes
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh>
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> you will be able to stun, knockdown etc monsters
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> you cannot Knockback them however
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> But not knockback.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> some encounters will be immune to these things though Smiling Orc
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Oh, hi Adam.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> I should stop watching my hands while I type.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> He is skilled typer!

<MMORPG_Taera> HEYuSHOOSH :asks: What game would your recommend playing untill Warhammer Online is released?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Hellgate.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> OH WAIT, you probably can't yet.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Hellgate is so very good.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Also, hungry Hungry Hippos.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> shhh Josh NDA
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> I mean...
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> uh...

<MMORPG_Taera> miber :asks: Would EAMythic be willing to host a TF2 server for their fans? Since, beta will be delayed when the Orange Box is released, and all..
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Depends on how many of you will play medics
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Heavy Gersh Need medic

<MMORPG_Taera> Vash :asks: Can we expect ambience effects of war in RVR? Like fire raining upon the Battlefield and explotions and such?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Thats the realm of our RvR Scenerios
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> the team is trying hard to make each one feel unique
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> for example the graveyard has low lying fog all around Smiling Orc

<MMORPG_Taera> Mandalore :asks: Do you think that there will be enough differences between players of the same class? Because in the Podcast it looks like all Player of the same class will have the same actions/skill.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> A player will have to make a number of choices in their gameplay experience
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> obviously the most important one is what career they want to play
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> The archetypes will stay fairly solid, in order to keep roles well defined
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> However that being said
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> there will be additional choices for a player to customize their career
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> on a per fight, per play session, and per lifetime level
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> more to come Smiling Orc

<MMORPG_Taera> Yaxa :asks: Do you have any suggestions for those of us who are less familiar with the Warhammer universe to get ourselves "prepared" before the game launches?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> If you're lucky enough to have a GW brick and mortar store nearby, stop in and I GUARANTEE people will be more than happy to tell you all you need to know.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Beyond that, honestly, look at everything on our website.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> It's PACKED with lore, background, general info, etc.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> If you're into Sci-fi / Fantasy I suggest reading Dan Abnett Razz Orc
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Finally, we've been really lucky with our fan base and the fan websites that cover us.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Jordan> the GW website is also packed with info...and so is the WAR newsletter!
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Communities like MMORPG.com are loaded with knowledgable, fun people who love talking Warhammer.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> So support your local fansite today!
<[WAR]EAMythic_James> Puts his stamp of approval on the above

<MMORPG_Taera> [Scorn]heldunder :asks: will pvp skill add to the amount of exp you get from a player, ex: a player is a very good pvper, will they be worth more EXP?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Yep. Players who have been run through a meat grinder and killed recently and/or repeatedly will be worth less renown than players who've been up and fighting for a long time.

<MMORPG_Taera> SentinelSix6 :asks: Sound related: Did you add race specific sounds which accompany special moves, ie. if Orc does some sort of screaming move, you can hear him scream. As it stands most mmo's have sounds when your guy gets hurt, or dies, but none seem to have sound to the special moves, beyond "swishes", "squishes", "crushes", and etc.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> This is important for everyone to know
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Right now the artwork (sound included) on abilities is in a first pass stage
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> we're going to continue to crank it up as we get closer to launch
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> but we don't want to spend excessive time on it until we're happy with the game balance of the ability

<MMORPG_Taera> sigismund :asks: why did you choose zeentch and not khorne?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Especially for an MMO, where customization and change and personal effort are so critical, Tzeentch was really the ONLY choice.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> We also wanted a very cohesive feel to the faction
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> It would be very hard fitting all of the archetypical roles into Khorne
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> since he's not fond of spell casting
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> healing
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> ranged combat
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> grouping
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> bunnies
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> and bunnies are important to Tzeentch
<[WAR]EAMythic_James> Very important

<MMORPG_Taera> Cayn :asks: Will 'tank' classes be able to use 2-handed weapons effectivly in RvR combat?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Hell yes.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Er... I mean... yes.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Yup
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Great Weapons are an offensive tanks best friend
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> And they look so damn cool.

<MMORPG_Taera> Kyoruto :asks: How have you kept the uniqueness in skills and yet still retain a blance in overall PVP? Was it a difficult task?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> With an army of designers all beholden to Gersh's every whim.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> heh
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Thats a rough question
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> in general every career has some sort of parallel on the opposing side
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> sometimes they share similar abilities
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> sometimes they are counters
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> even in cases where we share abilities or mechanics we try to present them diffrently
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> to flavor them properly for the race and realm
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> For example all DPS classes can chase down opponents
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> It's part of why we've been holding such a long beta test as well.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> In the case of the Witch Elf She can sprint in combat
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> but the marauder... well here is a secret
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> You implement a full, playable version, test it, take feedback, respond and make adjustments.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> two words
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Tentacle Grab
<[WAR]EAMythic_Gersh> Smiling Orc
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> * cool is now known as tentacle|grab
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Now THAT was funny.

<MMORPG_Taera> Delve :asks: Will there be an experience curve for PvP?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Delve - There is a curve to renown advancement and XP.

<MMORPG_Taera> Banditmage :asks: Is there any plan for a limited or collectors edition of the game to be released or should we start a 5000 signature petition now?
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Oh, will there EVER be.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Obviously, no details just yet, but I recommend that you start lifting weights now.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> The list of stuff Marketing is trying to cram in is absurd.
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> And awesome.
<[WAR]EAMythic_James> We're really excited and can't wait to share the details
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> It'll be very limited edition, so make sure to pre-order ASAP once it's announced.
<[WAR]EAMythic_James> And Josh isn't exagerating...it's the Mary Poppins Bag of Special Editions
<[WAR]EAMythic_Josh> Literally. It comes with an annoying British nanny wizard

theres a reason why i love this game

EDIT:
Lol retard that asked this

Indeed, I rofled xD

This Is Warhammaaaar!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWvAznIRVLA

A Bit Overreacted

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning uitgesteld

Electronic Arts heeft bekend gemaakt dat Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning pas volgend jaar gaat verschijnen en wel in het eerste fiscale half jaar. Dat betekent dat je deze game ergens tussen 1 april en 30 september kunt gaan verwachten. De reden is even helder als cliche: de ontwikkelaar heeft meer tijd nodig...