W.A.R.

Avathos

First of all I am glad that I found place with so much knowledge and unbias opinion when it comes to MMO's. My first MMO experience has been EQ 2. Which after 2 years i found it kind off dissapointing.

I never had the opportunity toplay WOW, but admire Blizzard for the quality of the games it puts out.

Now here is what I think and please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

1) Warhammer is been developed by MYTHIC. Can anyone please tell me a littel bit history about this company. I know they did DAoC, which I never played but some friends really liked. Does Mythic has the experience to make a MMO that stands out?

2) What can I expect from Warhammer. From the screenshoots I saw and the little bit information it seems to me it is a glorified version of WOW graphics engine. What can I expect visually from thsi game?

3) Now based on the class and race description I think it lacks a littel in variety. I know it is early to tell, but what I really liked from EQ 2 was the variety of races, character creation and classes. I hope Warhammer offers somethign similar

I dont like to visit game forums because they are mostly about bitching and whining.

Anyone in here who can please provide more information about this game? Or any game coming out worth of taking a peek (MMO class)

thank you

theanimedude

Alrighty, lets see... where to start.

Mythic, is definately a company you don't want to mess with. DAoC was, and still is, a hit game. One big thing that stands out is its Realm VS Realm combat. In this, large armies pit themselves large armies for a fight over territory. This sytem, while partly flawed, worked well. The old game engine really holds the RvR back, which is why they will make it even better in WAR.

First warning for WAR: If you're not into PvP, unfortunately, no matter their efforts, WAR will not be the game for you. As was stated, the game is planning on having PvP from level 1. Everywhere you go, there are wars going on between the factions and you are delivering things through enemy lines, or taking down those enemy lines, etc. If you dont like to be interrupted by a fellow PC, possibly of another faction, wanting to kill you... well.. dont play.

The graphics engine, is much higher end than that of WoW. What you were referring to was the art style. If you look at screenshots of the old Warhammer Online game (under development by some noname company hired by games workshop a few years back) everything is dark and gloomy and really horror-esque. Games Workshop wanted to stray from this, and while accomodating a PvP, war-centric environment, wanted the game to look fun and interesting. Because of this, Mythic took a more artistic approach, and made the art the same style you see in WoW (a more hand drawn cartoony look). The graphics engine, however, is much more powerful. If you look at the screenshots, you will notice a lot more polygons than WoW models have. WoW models have very very very low poly counts, which was used to accomodate slower machines. WAR seems like it will have a much higher poly count, but the same art style as WoW used.

Click Here for an Example of Art While the art style is similar, I feel it is a bit more realistic than WoW because of texture quality.

As for races, yes, they are kind of limited. What is neat though, is your classes, and character "aging" as it were. Firstly, classes (as far as I have read) will be a brached style. You have a class, and specialize in another class once you reach some goal. So like a magic type can branch into different styles of magic after meeting a goal. Same with warriors, you can branch, and so on. The characters have an aging factor, which I find neat. While you level, instead of just having the cliche level to show off, you actually have something to show for it. Orcs will grow bigger and more muscly, dwarves' beards will grow longer, etc. This way, you have a feeling that your character is an elder. Instead of just saying "ooh im level 60 look at my 1337 gear" you don't even have to say it, your beard/muscles/whatever will say it all for you.

Here's the quote from the MMORPG feature. This is about the class system:

The Career System

Advancement in WAR follows a relatively strict class based system. Each race has four classes, for a total of roughly twenty-four classes. However, while all races have a few basic archetypes (healer), the classes are distinct to each race.

“What we need is a rule system we can follow,” said Barnett. “A race is defined as much by what you leave out as what you leave in.”

---

The only concrete example available was the dwarves. They have two fighting and two academic classes.

* Ironbreaker: These are heavily armoured defensive tanks.
* Hammerer: These guys use giant hammers and are offensive tanks.
* Runepriest: Using rune magic, the Runepriest is the spellcaster and healer of this group. He can also enchant items with runes.
* Engineer: These guys are inventors and use technology for ranged damage per second attacks.

“[We allow you] to customize your ironbreakerness,” added Barnett. He made it very clear though that while you can be an ironbreaker who likes pistols, you cannot be an ironbreaker who is secretly a speced as something else entirely.

“Beard, stick, pointy hat. Wizard!” Barnett yelled from time to time during this presentation. What he was attempting to emphasize is that Mythic fully believes in silhouetting, which is to say that if you walk up to a guy in a full platemail, he will be what you expect him to be.

---

Also, if you're a quest person, here's some insight into the quest system:

---

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Preview (Page 4 of 5)

Quests, Quests, Quests

advertisement

On day one as a new greenskin, you’re fighting dwarves. The first quest finds the starting town invaded with NPC dwarves who’ve apparently gotten drunk, jumped into barrels, thrown themselves over a massive waterfall and landed on a nearby beach.

They breached a wall, and instantly, new players are involved in the war. The opening comments from Steve Perkins were evident here.

While the world did have an array of creatures to fight, it seemed like the primary thing players do battle against are either other players or NPCs of those races.

For quests, they’ve taken the classic and created several variant types players will find throughout the game.

* Public Quests: Occasionally during gameplay, a player will enter an area and be met with a UI display letting them know a public quest is going on. These are open to everyone and have larger goal. For example, the dwarves may need to feed a giant beer so that he’ll go on a rampage against the orcs. Everyone can contribute and everyone who does gets a reward.
* Conflict Quests: These are like public quests, save the other side has an opposing goal. For example, the dwarves have found a battlefield full of injured. Their public quest is to save all the dwarves, while the orcs must kill them all. It is either a race to victory (kill X dwarves before they save X dwarves) or a tug-of-war scenario.
* Branching Quests: They’ve also made it a goal to ensure that a quest is not always the same. One way is branching quests where players can make a choice that alters the outcome. For example, you can decide to deliver the item for experience or steal it for gold.
* “Christmas Quests”: These quests are hidden, large reward quests that are very easy. The goal is to encourage players to explore and find these gifts. The example Paul gave is a lost ranger with a starving wolf who needs to be fed. He asks you to find the wolf food. You simple kill the ranger and feed him to the wolf. Boom! Experience!

They’ve also subdivided quests into three kinds, tentatively called “green”, “yellow” and “red”. In the green quests, players are only asked to go to PvE areas; in the yellow, there are optional PvP elements; while in red quests players must participate in PvP.

---

---------

If you want to know anymore... just read this, it's quite insightful.