Warhammer is such a great IP for an MMO it would be a shame if someone else didn't give it a try. Are there any rumors out there? Legally speaking, do you think it would even be possible? I suppose Games Workshop could license out the rights again? If EA/Mythic threw the game away...do they still have exclusivity rights to a warhammer MMO?
Warhammer has had some GREAT games come out lately under its name, Warhammer End Times: Vermintide is great, Total War: Warhammer could be game of the year. It would be nice to see, finally, a successful MMO with the Warhammer IP.
Dragnon - Guildmaster - Albion Central Bank in Albion Online
www.albioncentralbank.enjin.com
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Warhammer fantasy RPG have my favorite campaign ever: The enemy within. The game is full of grit and dark humor, it uses a low powergap with interesting and tactical combat (talking about the original game, not Fantasy flight games fail of a new edition). I love Warhammer fantasy RPG, and I still use the 1st edition.
I don't think I can take another crappy version made by someone who never played the P&P game. Warhammers world is not child friendly, filled with dark horror, drugs, gore, violence and corruption. Whenever someone wants to turn an IP like that into a MMO they take away that stuff.
It would be better to use an IP like Dragonlance, it is kid friendlier, made to work with levels and easier to get for a none fan.
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Dragnon - Guildmaster - Albion Central Bank in Albion Online
www.albioncentralbank.enjin.com
The biggest issue with EA doing anything with MMO's is that the vast majority of their income is from consoles. For their sports games. I know they stole Mythic and luckily have not killed DAoC off just yet, but we shall see what happens there. Anyway, the point is EA does not rely on its MMO side of the house to stay afloat so it is doubtful they will be pulling their head out of the genre anytime soon. Mores the pity.
I would really like to see a WH (or 40K) MMO come out and have it be really good. I do Enjoy Eternal Crusade (even though it is nowhere near what they advertised making in the beginning) as a neat little lobby shooter, but there is no real depth to that game. It is what all lobby shooters are, a fun 15 minutes, jump in, jump out type of game. Again, a pity as what they originally advertised would have been amazing.
However, more to your point a well thought out and executed WH MMORPG would be really welcome (by me at least) at this point.
Things I would like to see:
Huge world. Seriously just massive.
A lot of depth per race. There is plenty of lore out there to really go to town with this and it should be done.
Use an SEMI-DAoC system speaking to the frontiers (help me here I can't remember it's been so long) but essentially have capturable keeps (up through castles) on the borders between nations. An idea I had instead of making the PvP area static as an assaulting nation captures keeps and castles the area of influence expands so that the attacking nation can eventually take over the entire map. Making the maps massive would make this a month's long endeavor. Assuming the nation being assaulted would at some point defend its self.
In this system (which even I don't think is viable) the PvE players would have an interest in supporting the PVP players (without having to PvP) or risk losing their homes, forges, horse farms etc. So the PvE player would supply stone, armor, weapons, clothes, wagons, etc all the stuff required for the PvP players to defend or assault.
Many more ideas but as this is already a rambling post, I will stop here.
As to your main point, it would be great to see a well-done WH MMORPG.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
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Warhammer is dark and gritty, Wow is colorful and rather positive. It is like comparing Game of thrones with Xena or Douglas Adams Dirk Gently with HP Lovecrafts stories.
The theme of Warhammer is the corruption leaking into the world and even into the Empires court.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Well, the greenskins use similar artstyle, I give you that. The dwarves to some degree as well. Humans and elves is a very different matter and the world/background have little in common.
The Empire is actually dark gritty low fantasy styled with buildings often looking rather historical in style while Wow is clearly high fantasy more inspired by Forgotten realms.
Now, to be fair are the FFG versions artstyle more similar to Wow then the original but they are still nowhere close besides the orcs. I could post a whole bunch of pictures from the original game but that would make this post huge without adding much. The picture I posted is from the cover of the first part of the enemy within and rather typical.
We don't really need another Wow inspired Warhammer game, neither art or mechanics wise.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
But it is those differences that makes the world a bit harder to make into a MMORPG, particularly anything around Slaanesh and it's demons. It would need an 18 year+ stamp or we would get a lot of upset parents fast.
Another matter is the combat mechanics. Wow is clearly based on D&D, huge powergap, high focus on gear and a set progression (if you start as a rogue you will become a max level rogue when you are done with the progression).
Warhammer is different, there certainly is progression and a tomb-robber have little chance against a Witch-hunter but there is a chance. You progress by learning new classes and you can more or less change between anything as long as you paid the XP to max the class out and to move to the next. Stats (which include the percentage you have when using skills you have) have a max for each class so if you already have raised it you need to move to a class/career that has a higher limit if you want to increase it more but after a while you tend to reach a soft levelcap where you can increase few if any stats and just gain new skills and spells.
Also, combat in Warhammer takes tactics which isn't strange since it is based on a miniature game. Terrain and position matters far more there then in D&D based games.
My point is that you can certainly make a good Warhammer fantasy based MMO but you need to be very familiar with the game and it's world. Mythic was not. If you make something close to Wow you fail and there are actually good IPs where that approach will work way better, like Ravenloft or Dragonlance. And getting those IPs will be both cheaper and less grief, Games Workshop are rather hard to work with.
I'm a particular fan of warhammer orcs - I just think they do it better than everyone else - but I have gotten very annoyed at how cheesy they have become when portrayed in video games, just an endless string of clumsy jokes and fart jokes.
It baffles me that it shut down, there are much worse MMOs still on the market. I would love to see another go at it but with 3 factions this time ala Daoc.
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I liked Warhammer online enough but the limitations of the classes etc. . bah. . was hoping for more open world etc.
There is the new version of the Pen and Paper RPG coming out from Cubical 7 based on 1st and 2nd so we can hope for something of a throwback although an MMO in the vein is unlikely.
Enemy Within 1st edition is still on my shelf right beside me. I would love to see even a good single player RPG based around something like that. Maybe I will make it with RPG maker. . KIDDING!
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Since GW started whoring out the IP, it's true most have been stinkers, but most have also been indie attempts, very few decent studios have put in proper effort. More baffling to me is why so many of these small studios decide to focus on the crap bits of warhammer. I mean, I know Skaven have a bit of a cult following, but it's wider appeal is very limited. I mean, giant ugly rats....
I do understand that there is a desire to differentiate from traditional elves / humans / dwarves type fantasy, but honestly I think they'd be better off focusing on traditional fantasy elements from Warhammer instead of going after the obscure. It's popular for a reason.
Same applies to WH40k (my favourite). Most of the games seem to focus on space marines. Now, space marines are cool, but there is so much more to the IP than genetically enhanced humans!
They also decided to use similar progression and combat mechanics as Wow early on and that is a fail in my book for this IP.
It certainly didn't help that all the original ideas got cut before launch (I did like the idea that you character would change and look cooler as you level) together with 4 of the 6 cities and most of the intended endgame, even if they had added all that it still wouldn't really be Warhammer.
Seriously, an IP like that should be made by and for fans of the IP.
This was in a PVP zone. Good times. Can't understand why they are not still around.
( Note to self-Don't say anything bad about Drizzt.)
An acerbic sense of humor is NOT allowed here.
I never understood the hate the game got. The art was great, the design concept was good, the classes were some of the most interesting and well designed in any MMO to date, it had tons of great innovations that are now bog standard in pretty much every MMO, and it was just fun.
All of that outweighs the bugs, poor balance, lack of content development and endless renown/gear grind to stay competitive.
It had its flaws, but at the end of the day it was one of the better MMOs I've played.
Some parts of it was fun but with 3 factions and no Games Workshop it would have made a far superior game. Paul Barnetts boast about killing Wow before launch didn't help either (what was he thinking?).
So, in short, for the average gamer, the minute-to-minute fun was just lacking. If you got into a premade for scenarios, or a premade raid for world pvp, sure, it was great fun, but outside of those two activities it was just a painful experience.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
http://store.steampowered.com/app/502370/Warhammer_40000_Sanctus_Reach/
or
http://store.steampowered.com/app/312370/Warhammer_40000_Armageddon/
or
http://store.steampowered.com/app/440330/Warhammer_Arcane_Magic/
or
http://store.steampowered.com/app/326670/Warhammer_Quest/
or
http://store.steampowered.com/app/276810/Mordheim_City_of_the_Damned/
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