Warhammer Online : Age of Reckoning: PAX Preview

Dana

While most of EA Mythic showed WAR in Germany, a small group made it to Seattle and PAX. There, Carolyn Koh played the game and spoke to the team to find out how things had been coming.

At E3, Warhammer had already shown the Greenskins and the Dwarven races, and according to Content Designer John Cox they were showing off was the development of the UI and the Career Advancement; otherwise known as character development. Each character will have three areas of skills to build. They are core, specialization and secondary abilities and points are awarded in each category as your character advances. The points distributed will be roughly in a 10:8:6 ratio and you will be able to gain enough points to advance all your core abilities, but must pick and choose the specialization and secondary abilities. Abilities can also be further upgraded through trainers.

You can read more here.

Vertex1980

WoW......

Copeland

Actually i saw this game at GenCon and it did have striking resemblence to WoW. I'll be passing on it unless i hear some great things from the players.

Magelite

Of course it will look like wow...it's based off the look of the tabletop game and blizzard ripped that off in the first place. That doesn't mean it will play like WoW though.

Oh, and the orcs ride boars, not bears.

metalpinguin

beWARe First Guild with GUILD BETA of Warhammer online

Elda

Yes his game will be totaly awesome, I can't wait!

VideoXPG

I liked the preview, gave a better idea how character advancement will work in the game. Also love that Beast of Chaos screenie!

I can't wait for this game.

Jetrpg

Thanks for the work this game is my only hope... and thats sad what can i say daoc spoiled me.

Darkhellfire

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Originally posted by Vertex1980
WoW......

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Put bluntly, you are a punk.

Warhammer came before WoW, get your facts straight you little kid. Blizzard "borrowed" many idaes from the Warhammer universe.. and changed them to their own. Thus, it can not be like WoW because it was FIRST, and so all the material for the game will come from the LORE and Mythic's other game(s).

I believe there is a great Penny-Arcade comic on this subject: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/10

And a good thread to check out for an in-depth review is: http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5417

hairytrooper

Every character also has four accessory slots which are items which will show up graphically on the character, like shrunken skulls or heads hanging from belts.
Thats really awesome!

Cant whait to see that

NEvara

cant wait for this game, i think its gonna be awesome if they intend to keep in line with what they are saying.

Red_

I actually agree with the first comment. I had great hopes for this being a 15 years warhammer fan. I quit playing Wow last year after my 985t438658th run of molten snore and realizing no matter how many times id respec its still the same old crap. Is it me or did the game just totally change direction? It sounded like it was more open ended than that, at least a little. From this new review it just sounds like a load of features went out the window and theyre taking the easy road with much of the remainning ones. The worst being this skill tree sounding more and more like the cookie cutter they have in WoW. I dont know but im getting this ominous feeling that EA is making them stick to the cash cow recipe and the game is turning rapidly into the wow clone we were fearing.

RvR areas <--> Alterac anyone

1 mount per race <--> Do i really miss my kodo that much?

10/8/6 <--> doesnt feel like crafting is going to be a viable core profession option... hmmm where have i seen this before?

linked pairs fighting?  <--> Even Wow isnt that shallow what's this?


Anyways, just hope they wake up over at mythic and realize how great an open-ended fantasy game set in the awesome warhammer world would be and wish they dont mess it up totally like theyre currently fixing to for the warhammer franchise. This capture the flag crap trend most studios are now trying to pass for mmorpgs has got to stop. PLEASE give us a real rpg where you are free to risk your neck at any corner or just as well make a fortune by cutting deals on the bretonian wine road.

Magelite

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Originally posted by Red_
RvR areas <--> Alterac anyone?

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Similar, but then Alterac doesn't let you push the front all the way back to the enemy captial and siege and plunder it...

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1mount per race <--> Do i really miss my kodo that much?

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When was the last time you saw an orc riding a cold one? Or a horse, for that matter.

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10/8/6 <--> doesnt feel like crafting is going to be a viable core profession option... hmmm where have i seen this before?

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We don't have any real info on the crafting system...how'ed you come to that conclusion?

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linked pairs fighting?  <--> Even Wow isnt that shallow what's this?

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You'll be free to go to other RvR and fight there, your not stuck to fighting greenskins/stunties/pansie elves/ emo elves/humies.

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Anyways, just hope they wake up over at mythic and realize how great an open-ended fantasy game set in the awesome warhammer world would be and wish they dont mess it up totally like theyre currently fixing to for the warhammer franchise. This capture the flag crap trend most studios are now trying to pass for mmorpgs has got to stop. PLEASE give us a real rpg where you are free to risk your neck at any corner or just as well make a fortune by cutting deals on the bretonian wine road.

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This depends on your definition of real mmorpg, but mythic isn't forcing you into the PvE zones, you can play entirely in PvP if you want...not to mention some people only want to lay PvE (I personally enjoy both.)

Red_

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1mount per race <--> Do i really miss my kodo that much?



When was the last time you saw an orc riding a cold one? Or a horse, for that matter.
it
could be giraffes for all i care. If it cant be customized or levelled
or anything even remotely interactive, it becomes a means of
transportation and the nature of it is not really important.

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10/8/6 <--> doesnt feel like crafting is
going to be a viable core profession option... hmmm where have i seen
this before?

We don't have any real info on the crafting system...how'ed you come to that conclusion?

The basic premise to Warhammer Online is Realm vs Realm warfare. The
extent of the tradeskill system as well as the merchant system is still
under development, however EA Mythic is staying true to the core game
and a profession system will not be built around tradeskills.



thats a quote from the article.

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Anyways,
just hope they wake up over at mythic and realize how great an
open-ended fantasy game set in the awesome warhammer world would be and
wish they dont mess it up totally like theyre currently fixing to for
the warhammer franchise. This capture the flag crap trend most studios
are now trying to pass for mmorpgs has got to stop. PLEASE give us a
real rpg where you are free to risk your neck at any corner of just as
well make a fortune by cutting deals on the bretonian wine road.

This
depends on your definition of real mmorpg, but mythic isn't forcing you
into the PvE zones, you can play entirely in PvP if you want...not to
mention some people only want to lay PvE (I personally enjoy both.)

That's exactly why we end up with half-assed capture the flag games that pretend to be RPGs. Think planet-side. It is nothing more than a shooter with "customizable" characters. Same cold be said of Wow if you only play the pvp zone. It became a game inside the game: CTF with wow characters. What i'd like to see is a well developped world where you can live inside cities and have a real RPG feel (thieves guilds, power politics, merchants, intrigues, think middenheim or Kislev in the warhammer world). A game where you could walk out of that city's gates and expect to be murdered by highwaymen (be them players or NPCs) over the content of your purse or just cause you happened upon a gang of crazy chaos cultists. IMHO, pvp should not be separated from the rpg aspect of the game. It has to be seamlessly integrated in the way the game is played. Think of EVE online, players in there can define their profession by their relationship to pvp; they can be pirates not cause their character sheet says they are but rather cause they kill and ransom ppl for a living in real time in the game. Thats my definition of a mmoRPG.

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Lashers

With the disappointment of the recent wave of MMO games I am really excited for this one.  As far as WoW goes, it looks like I will be playing it until Warhammer is released.  Everything about this game so far is exactly what I would hope for.

I imagine the excitement in our community will really begin building soon for this one! 

Magelite

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Originally posted by Red_
could be giraffes for all i care. If it cant be customized or levelled
or anything even remotely interactive, it becomes a means of
transportation and the nature of it is not really important.

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Well your in luck there, they plan on having Mounts be highly customisable.

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The basic premise to Warhammer Online is Realm vs Realm warfare. The
extent of the tradeskill system as well as the merchant system is still
under development, however EA Mythic is staying true to the core game
and a profession system will not be built around tradeskills.

thats a quote from the article.

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That's still not an explaination of how the crafting system works though, I'd hold my judgement over that.

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That's exactly why we end up with half-assed capture the flag games that pretend to be RPGs. Think planet-side. It is nothing more than a shooter with "customizable" characters. Same cold be said of Wow if you only play the pvp zone. It became a game inside the game: CTF with wow characters. What i'd like to see is a well developped world where you can live inside cities and have a real RPG feel (thieves guilds, power politics, merchants, intrigues, think middenheim or Kislev in the warhammer world). A game where you could walk out of that city's gates and expect to be murdered by highwaymen (be them players or NPCs) over the content of your purse or just cause you happened upon a gang of crazy chaos cultists. IMHO, pvp should not be separated from the rpg aspect of the game. It has to be seamlessly integrated in the way the game is played. Think of EVE online, players in there can define their profession by their relationship to pvp; they can be pirates not cause their character sheet says they are but rather cause they kill and ransom ppl for a living in real time in the game. Thats my definition of a mmoRPG.

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There won't be any CTF (if you're referring to the article though, it seems more King-of-the-hill style) I'm not a terribly heavy roleplayer myself but I know Mythic hold their roleplayers in high regard and hope to capture the feeling of the warhamer world by emphasising the races hatred for each other. So, it might be easier for you to role-play, might not.

Robbgobb

I will have to wait and see. I am excited with what could be done with the universe. I have to say I would like Wood Elves and Skaven to be in though.

I also would not be bothered if there was no tradeskillls. Glad people like them and I do practice them if I play though not much.

Be glad when Beta gets here and there will be more information even is just a little more.

Vallenar

Fans of PvP are going to love this game.  While I am not a big PvP fan I can certainly see the draw to this one.

If only they would come out with a game centered in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

Now that would be cool.

Vertex1980

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Originally posted by Lumster

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Okay?  I'm 26, two kids, great job.

I'm just poking fun.  Seems there's too many hostle people here to actually laugh.

I will leave you all mighty people alone.  Forgive me massa. 

Vertex1980

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Originally posted by Vallenar

Fans of PvP are going to love this game.  While I am not a big PvP fan I can certainly see the draw to this one.
If only they would come out with a game centered in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Now that would be cool.

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I'm a fan of PvP and won't be playing this game.  Just doesn't look like something I would enjoy.

I bet I'll get super flamed for this...  just because I don't express my love for a game... people will tell me I'm stupid, young, spoiled, flamming, spamming, trolling, etc... don't post if you don't like it replies.

So, all those people who dissagree with things should just die?  So everyone in the world who doesn't like something should be allowed to express their opinion? 

Please.

gt0goat

I agree its a world fo warcraft clone just like lord of the rings is... they all be clones

Magelite

Originally posted by Vertex1980
I'm a fan of PvP and won't be playing this game.  Just doesn't look like something I would enjoy.

Well what about it won't you enjoy? I suppose there are those PvPers who prefer worlds where you can't trust anyone like EVE whilst there are RvRers like me who like the idea of each side of the community working together to beat the crap out of the other.

Regus

pvp wise i prefer realm versus realm too, especially when there is a whole section of land to be conquered so it is kind of open pvp, just hope they regulate the numbers on each side a bit so we don't get 4000/1000 that always sucks.  i will have to wait and see but WAR has my attention

Vertex1980

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Originally posted by Magelite

Well what about it won't you enjoy? I suppose there are those PvPers who prefer worlds where you can't trust anyone like EVE whilst there are RvRers like me who like the idea of each side of the community working together to beat the crap out of the other.

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I enjoy PvP to the fullest.  Why else would I play Guild Wars and Shadowbane?  Just something about the game itself that doesn't apeal to me.  Maybe because I know it's going to be riddled with children??

Magelite

Originally posted by Vertex1980

I enjoy PvP to the fullest.  Why else would I play Guild Wars and Shadowbane?  Just something about the game itself that doesn't apeal to me.  Maybe because I know it's going to be riddled with children??

Oh I dunno...I don't think WoW will be losing that subscriber base for a while, despite what anyone says. And if they do come off it, they'll be much more likely to flock to Age of Conan, because they're more 'mature' and will give into their adolescent desire for blood and bewbs.

NEvara

excuse me but have you played Eve? well i have and i belive your wrong about not trusting the community besides that isnt the fact i want to say that RvR is abit useless except if they do something to tell you that you own that land or something like that.