Catching up with WAR: An update on Warhammer Online's closed beta

The men and women behind Warhammer Online love their job. It's not hard to see, or hear, and yesterday we had the opportunity to listen in as Warhammer's leading lights chatted about their favorite subject. EA Mythic participated in a conference call aiming to update fans and press alike with the latest news of their much-anticipated title. The team went through a slew of general questions, fleshing out our understanding of the features coming with the game's fall release. Sitting in on the call were Adam Gershowitz (Combat and Careers lead), Josh Drescher (Associate Producer), Paul Barnett (mouth-full-of-pizza), Jeff Hickman (Senior Producer), and Destin Bales (Content Director).

Join us as we walk through the often-humorous commentary from the WAR boys. We'll learn about RvR, keeps and siege, cooperative gameplay, the makeup of the endgame, the viability of PvE, and what you have to do to end up on Paul Barnett's whiteboard. Read on to find out, and to see some exclusive screenshots of the game in action.
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The team starts with an update of where the game is right now. Warhammer Online is currently in closed Beta, as you're no doubt aware. They've just finished up another part of their iterative, targeted, testing experience. "We're not just letting people wander around the game." Thousands of people are 'checking their homework', while Jeff runs around the building 'whipping everyone like mules'. They've just finished up a run on the mid-level elven content and have now moved on to the high level RvR campaign. They're pounding on the Empire vs. Chaos content, making sure that battlefield objectives, keeps, sieges, and the land between Altdorf and the Inevitable city is all squared away.

Paul Barnett pipes up with the recent addition of Mike Donatelli's name to his whiteboard. The story goes that designers have to confess, like they do to a priest, to let Paul know that they were playing the game just for fun. Donatelli's "shoulders were hunched over and his hand was like a claw on the mouse", and his coworkers called him on it. He had to confess and add his name to the board. The introductions and icebreaking accomplished, the team moved on to specific questions:

The game is receiving a lot of stress testing in the RvR areas, that's going to be the core of the game. What did you learn from Dark Age of Camelot, and how is Warhammer's experience going to differ from Camelot's?

"We know what we're doing!", shouts Paul. A lot of information has transferred from their work on DAoC. They learned how to balance realms, how to tweak classes, what players enjoy doing in long bursts, in short bursts. A lot of the stuff they're doing in Warhammer was derived from Camelot. Stuff they wanted to do back in the day, saying "man if we could only do this." Warhammer is building on the great foundation that DAoC has created. The difference is that while Camelot offers one front with no real focus, DAoC has three battlegrounds with many different focused areas and a clear sense of progression. There's also plenty of open field battle, spontaneous PvP with plenty of reward, and the instanced scenarios. Of those, there are over 30 in the game, one in every zone. Ultimately the RvR game culminates in the city sieges, going for the ultimate prize, "Kicking people in the crown jewels." The designers have discovered that people who like Tiger Woods golf games really like the siege engines – there are a lot of similarities.

What tools are you going to offer to coordinate large-scale battles? How many people to you expect to be involved in city sieges, realistically?

It's all about building the experience from the ground up, using cooperative social gameplay. It's essentially a subtle way of teaching you to play well with others. Conveniently the max size of one group is the minimum size of a guild. Public quests lead right into making guilds, making friends. Guilds lead to more and more significant participation, with guilds themselves collaborating to create Alliances. Alliances are groups of guilds, and these high-level strategies will have heavy tools support. The goal is to get you into the world killing people right quick rather than having a second job to manage your guild. Messaging in the game helps you know where the combat is, and keeps the players informed. They figure that people are going to keep the WAR Herald as their home page at work , refresh it to see progress, and rush home to defend their city.

Are any systems in place to stop one side from constantly winning and getting more powerful every time? If one side wins, won't that allow them access to more powerful loot and possibly lead to a vicious cycle?

Obviously that winners are well rewarded for sacking a capital city or controlling a zone. Just the same,the longer a zone is under control, the more strength the losers gain. The winning side gets taken back down, taking things back to a sense of parity. They're trying to give players a sense that the competition is lively, active. Adam is doing some organic things to make sure class and sides are balanced. "But what if everyone decides to play one side? Every beta trial has balanced out. It's absolutely frightening. Almost as if both sides are compelling. I'm going to burn a city here, kill a king there, ride around on my wolf, get a pig hat, all sorts of cool stuff." Some organic things to are being done to track players on the population level, and mechanical things done to encourage people in certain ways.

We're wondering about endgame content accessibility. Are you targeting the average gamer, or only the elite top 10%?

That's a great question. We're targeting everybody. We're trying to create the experience where It's not whether you can to it or not, but how long it takes you to get there. It's about commitment, about being skillful, everyone has access to the endgame content. Everyone has access to those items. City sieges are about a lot of people, but not just raids and guilds. RvR games mean everyone already has friends, there are thousands of allies already in the city. It's accessible to everyone. "There is an obsession for designers to build for that 10%. They're loud and successful, but that leads to doom and destruction. You can build a golf course so only Tiger Woods can actually get par. That's madness. So you don't design for him, you design for everyone. Same with our endgame, it's fun and compelling and a great hobby. If you're in the top 10% and obsessive, you're going to accel at it. But that's okay, because everyone else just treats it like a jolly good time."

Can you share any information about what crafting will entail?

It's in beta. Jeff's wife likes it. There were several new screen mockups turned in recently. There's a lot of green in it, a plant. There's stuff in it you can drink, there are caves and fungus. No doilies. Anything that will help in the act of war. "We don't have time for bakers or candlestick makers, but we do have butchers."

So what's the release date target?

(ed: imagine, if you will, that this was repeated five times in a very convincing impression of a Dalek.) Fall of two-thousand and eight!

How long will it take to reach the highest level of renown in Warhammer's PvP?

If you go back to DAoC and see how long it takes to go up realm ranks, we based the system on that. While leveling is fairly quick, renown leveling is much slower. That's where we want people to spend time and earn the most - killing other people, capturing keeps, trying to master their class.

Originally Warhammer's PvP was without very different than what you'd done before. With keeps and sieges and classes it seems like you folks are sliding back towards Camelot?

In very early iterations of the game's design, we experimented with a lot of insanity. It's a fun thing to do in pre-production. "I'm going to make classes out of clouds and gold." We moved from that early design and experimented with five or six different systems. There are a lot of things we chose to innovate on in Warhammer – RvR, Public Quests, Living Cities, Tome of Knowledge, Pig Hats, etc. Careers are about fun and being iconic, not about doing something crazy and unique. They're not about doing something complicated or out of the ordinary. They're about quick understanding, ease of accessibility, that are difficult to master, iconic and fun to play. It's the natural evolution of the design process.

As far as RvR being from Camelot: We had a sound design on the PvP when we began working on WAR, and we drove for two years on that. Beta was going good, but the players just wanted more. They wanted the keeps and siege they'd experienced in Camelot. They had great open world and scenarios, campaign game, but no keeps. Players demanded it and we listened. If the players think it'll be great, we'll look at it a least. We've taken all of the knowledge from DAoC and rolled it into the game. Keeps have made the game a more well-rounded PvP experience.

It sounds like RvR is really going to be immerse players into the war, what about PvE?

Public quests is one of those ways, with monster on monster combat. They're called conflict quests, with enemies on different sides tug of warring. PvE is also in close proximity to RvR, players can see it up close without fighting. And, of course, you're contributing to RvR by engaging in PvE. All of the systems are intertwined, at some point you're going to have to rely on players who focus on the other side of the fence. When we get into the campaign everything in the game contributes to the war effort, to zone control. That includes quests, public quests, RvR, Tome unlocks, and crafting. Zone control trickles up, so in the fourth tier you need people in the lower levels to support the war effort. The PvE players actually need the RvR campaign to give them access to the capital city PvE elements - the highest level raiding encounters. It's a living, dynamic part of the world. Everything in the world impacts that element. Everything points to that core element of the game.

One of the first things you'll experience when you enter the game is the feeling of war. WAR is everywhere. As an Empire player when you first start the game your village is under attack, half the village is in flames. One of the things you have to do is rescue the villagers that are in flaming buildings. In Chaos you're going to invade a town and burn the place down. "No bunny killing." Paul offers up: "My boy is amazing at PvP. He's a finger ninja, when he plays with me he eliminates his dad. I don't want to do PvP because my kid will kill me a lot. I like PvE and being off on my own being heroic. No ten year old kids pummeling me into the dirt. When I'm off doing PvE and such I'm not alone - there are still people around. But I can happily kill dragons and giants, help the war effort, and not get killed all the time by ten year old buys. All the while I see this war going on in the background." Siege is also available in PvE as well. There's a public quest where you can jump onto a Dark Elf ship, use siege system, and fire on enemies on land.

Can you elaborate a bit more on Public Quests?

There are over 300 PQs in the game, and absolutely everything is in there. Do you want Necromantic hordes of undead crawling through a mountain pass? Do you want political intrigue between two ancient rival houses? Meet under a flag of truce, and in true Dark Elf fashion you'll betray the leaders and destroy the house. Do you want to rescue a princess? Heck no! Capture and ransom a high elven maiden, ending an ancient feud. Where else can you get a giant drunk and have him fight for you? Where else can you blow up half a continent? Where else can you summon demons? It's hard to imagine PQs without experiencing them for yourself. Truly everywhere. They're just awesome.

Jeff offers up a personal experience. Last cycle they were in tier 3 empire vs. chaos, and he went into a PQ he'd never seen before. Called the Chaos Ruins, there are a bunch of zealots gathering up these stones of power from the debris. Jeff, as a Witch Hunter, had to go through and kill the zealots and then pick up the stones. Enough of these, and PQ stepping into phase 2, rewarding them and moving the story forward. Phase 2 saw a group of sorcerers coming out to an 8-point star and summoning all demons of Tzeech from everywhere. The goal there is to kill the sorcs as fast as you can so they don't summon enough demons to overwhelm you. Then, this crazy magus comes flying down shrieking and giggling on a disc. He hovers in the distance, watching you take on the mages. Once they're dead the sorcerer on the disc drops flamers monsters, and he becomes the final boss. At the end he got to roll for the loot from a massive chest that fell out of the sky. He did it four or five times in a row, and then came into the company Monday and made everybody play it four or five times. "We want people to talk about these experiences around the water cooler the next day."

Can you clarify what scenarios are?

Scenarios are the game's instanced, balanced battle arenas. You can fight against evenly matched groups of players from the opposing side. There are multiple types of games but one of their favorites is Murder Ball. Murder Ball is this crazy malevolent object on the map, when you grab it there is a pillar of light and it circles around your head. You kill people incredibly easily, but the murder ball kills you slowly. The death toll will be catastrophic. Each of the scenarios has rules like that. CTF, deathmatch, just like you got to play on the playground with swords and spears. There's a little button on the UI that lets you jump in automatically. It's meant to be an in-and-out experience It's targetted squarely at the mid-session gamer. Just a few hours of play. Jump in, do cool things, jump out. There are over 30 of these, at every level of the game. You can do your first one at level 1 if you want.

How tough was it to choose which careers went into the game?

It was really tough. There are so many iconic things to pick from - just choosing the races was difficult. Some things stand out, though. Warhammer is about crazy mages with their heads lit on fire. Warrior Priest, witch hunters, etc. Witch hunters are all about the hat. They are the coolest cats, strutting their stuff. It's about sneaking up behind em' and give them the kidney tap. "Warhammer is about doing the obvious in an inobvious way." All about having savage angry kangaroos attack players. So many things to do.

Jeff shares a quick anecdote where he was putting the hurt on as a Witch Hunter, was grabbed away from his target by a Maurader. A huge glowing tentacle grabbed him away to be ripped apart by a mutant with a huge claw for a hand.

What about fans of the game who don't know the lore very well?

Pre-order the collector's edition! It introduces the whole setting to you! More seriously, there are a number of great podcasts and such on the website that convey this. Plus, there's always Paul's classic 'english posh people' rant.

What can you tell us about bringing different experiences to guild players?

Guilds are critical to overall success for the game and for players. That was one of Mark's mandates: guilds can't just be a static thing, not just a chat channel. Guilds have to be organic, living part of the world. They call them living guilds. From the moment you form your guild, everything you do helps to push your guild towards success. Guilds level up by having their members participate in every element of the game - RvR, Quests, etc. All of this makes your guild advance.

Eventually you'll unlock the banner system, which is not just a flag that you can wave around. It's a tool you can use on the battlefield, it throws off an AoE buff. Guilds are about training people towards cooperation and completing group tasks, all about doing impressive things. Guilds are an integral part of that. Guilds can claim keeps and objectives. "This belongs to us." Guards will wear your tabard!

They always get asked: If I have a 200 person guild, and you have 6 person guild, won't mine level faster? No. Because systems are in place that equalize that as much as they can. Massive guilds shouldn't be massive just to gain xp.

Is there anything in place to ensure that zerg techniques don't always win the day?

Catapults. The game has lots of opportunities in place to break people up, and cause people harm if they stay as large groups. Cannons, hellcannons, lots of ways to combat those kinds of players. Our QA folks, for example, will just slaughter any zerg attack endlessly because they know how to play the game. We force people to adapt to the game's style.

What kind of equipment can you expect in Siege warfare?

There are four kinds of warmachines. Rams to knock down doors, boiling oil takes out ram users. Then there are direct fire weapons (catapults) and indirect fire weapons. The best way to go about it is to target personnel with indirect fire. Every warmachine in the game has a unique and specific way to be used. It's not just about pointing the gun and walking away. It's almost a mini-game, every type of warmachine has a different mini-game style of play. Wind, range, etc, can all effect whether a bolt hits. It's easy to have your bolt blown off-course.

How viable is solo play?

It's the only thing Paul does, because he's a malcontent. There will plenty of opportunities to group up with others, but solo is very viable. The deal is that the game tricks you into making friends. It tricks you into having a social life. PQs do that, as do scenarios. You don't have to wander around the capital city LFG, you can run out get involved, socialize and get involved right away. You've painted your face blue, they've done the same. Soccer fans who love your team are everywhere!

How viable is it to play the game with an RvR-only style?

It's our goal to let players do that. Right now it's kind of slow, and we don't want it to be that way. You can gain experience, gold, and items all through RvR gameplay. We're still in the tweaking phase at the moment. Absolutely a goal, very obtainable, Jeff did that through many levels all through the last Beta cycle.

Any last thoughts?

Every career has a widget thing that ties into your class's theme.

When you win loot on the PQ, this chest flies out of the sky!

There's a huge image on the ground that says 'put siege weapons here' - marketing stole it to put it on the CDs!

Since they're doing focused testing, it's very rare that anyone sees the entirety of the game. People don't' really understand the depth of what they're doing. There's so many layers of stuff to do, rewards, things to do. The game is not about leveling to 40. That's a very small part of the game. It's about guild leveling, gaining renown, playing through the campaign, getting one of 20+ armor sets, it's a total hobby experience. It's difficult to convey everything that we've done because people have preconceptions about what these games are like. You cane earn the right to carry around standard bearers, plant them, put them on keeps. It's more than that ... so much more it's hard to convey.

It's the same thing with the Tome of Knowledge. They had a guy come down from the Need for Speed team. "It's just this book thing? You people keep telling me it's great." They sat him down and really exposed him to that part of the game. He came away from that and said, "The tome of knowledge is awesome, I have an emotional attachment to it." It's one of those things where the more you experience the better it is.

If you have any other questions, make sure to check out the website - Warhammeronline.com. Thanks!