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Our talk with Warhammer Online's Carrie Gouskos
It's been a tumultuous time for Warhammer Online of late, but the new executive producer Carrie Gouskos seems to be well-suited to weathering the storm. She's been overseeing the development of the game since February, and under her direction it's moved more and more steadily into an RvR focus. We recently were lucky enough to get a chance to talk with Ms. Gouskos about her involvement with the game, her opinion on the game's state, and what she could let us know about its future. Massively: In the simplest terms possible, what is Warhammer Online's development focus at the moment? Carrie Gouskos: Now that we've gotten through the 1.3.5 patch -- and this is about to surface for the players, but obviously, for the developers, we're always kind of looking at least a little bit ahead, sometimes very far ahead -- our next big thing is sort of twofold. One, I kind of made a renewed commitment to some of the more major bugs that I really want to address. But really, our major one is open RvR, and addressing some of the issues that our players have brought up to us.
WAR: Play both factions on the same server by patch 1.3.6
It's always important to eat your dessert first at dinner and then the main meal -- or so our rapscallion uncles taught us. So it is with developer articles. While the bulk of Carrie Gouskos' April Producer's Letter for Warhammer Online was devoted to examining the reasons behind the 1.3.5 patch changes, including the 100% RvR city sieges, it's not a bad idea to skip ahead to the final paragraph of the letter for one truly tasty tidbit: "By 1.3.6 players will have the capability to play as both Order and Destruction on the same server. We did this in Camelot, because we wanted to give players more choices about where they wanted to play and who they wanted to play with. We're aware of the possible downsides (such as cross-realming) and we're aware that people have a lot of realm pride, which we believe is very important, so we're going to be introducing a significant lockout timer to switch between realms." Up to this point, once a player rolled either a Destruction or Order player on a server, the opposing faction was denied to them unless they deleted every character and started over. This certainly represents a significant change in the the faction struggle of WAR, but could also solve the issue of friends being unable to connect on the same realm because one rolled Order and the other Destruction. Carrie highlighted other changes and revisions forthcoming to the game, including an auction house revamp and a pass at improving the open-RvR experience. Head over to the WAR Herald to read the full letter!
Warhammer Online courts their notable bloggers
If there was any doubt in the Warhammer Online community that producer Carrie Gouskos was serious when she said she wanted increased community involvement, it doesn't have much of a leg left to stand on. The amount of information that's been coming out of the team has been exceptional, and the regular producer letter has certainly helped the feel of the team being invested. But they're taking it a step further: they're bringing four of the biggest bloggers about their game straight to the office, and they're giving them -- and other players -- a great opportunity to connect with the team. Not only will the invited bloggers have a chance to ask the developers any questions they can think of, with an emphasis on patch 1.3.5, the team is inviting players to send the bloggers questions via Twitter. The event will be taking place on Thursday, April 8th, with the tweeting of questions set to begin sometime after 2 PM EDT. The trip itself lasts both Thursday and Friday, and should provide some of the most vocal Warhammer Online fans with some interesting news about their favorite game. Win-win for the fan community, yes?
Warhammer Online Producer's Letter teases 1.3.5 improvements
As March winds down to a close, the WAR continues -- and Mythic producer Carrie Gouskos steps up to rally the troops behind a few juicy, if tantalizingly vague, quality of life improvements coming in the 1.3.5 patch. Take my hand, Dorothy, for it's dyes, scenarios, Marauders and minimaps, oh my! Following Warhammer Online's patch 1.3.4, the team has kept a close eye on the PvP scenarios, and while they are happy overall, the plague of player /AFK's have taken their toll. Carrie promises that they are "actively investigating a solution for this problem." She also highlighted the improved communication efforts of the team, as seen on the official Dev Discussions forum. Small but attractive improvements are in store for WAR's 1.3.5 patch, including a sharper look for armor dyes, "gutters" for the minimap to show off-map objective directions, and dual wielding for the mutated Marauder class.
Warhammer Online gets a new producer's letter
Hot on the heels of the 1.3.4 patch, we've received another letter from Warhammer Online's producer discussing the state of the game and its immediate future. Carrie Gouskos, who has apparently inherited the position formerly held by Bruce MacLean and Jeff Skalski, has taken the opportunity to share information of the coming updates to the game. It's also a chance for a new outline of how the team wishes to improve upon community relations, with the promise of more frequent news and updates along with early player involvement in the testing process. In addition for soliciting players for loading screen tips, the letter talks about what can be expected with the next two small patches for the game, 1.3.5 and 1.3.6. The former is slated to shift the core experience of cities and city sieges to an RvR experience, emphasizing PvP combat and with encounters balanced to shift based on population sizes. On the other hand, the latter is going to examine armor sets closely and try to provide a redesign for maximum player benefit. Warhammer Online fans can look forward to more about these features in the coming months, with any luck.
Carrie Gouskos shares a couple WAR teasers
MMO blogger Werit recently caught up with Mythic Entertainment's Carrie Gouskos and asked her a few questions. For those of you who don't know Carrie, she's an associate producer for Warhammer Online who has worked on such things as the Tome of Knowledge, user-interface, Realm War website, and Mac client.. The interview mostly covers things she's been working on, so be sure to check it out.While discussing the Realm War site, Carrie offered this teaser: "Actually one of the unannounced Special Projects that we've been investigating since the beginning of the year is an example of an extension of the Realm WAR. I can't spoil it now, but I would keep an eye open in the next month or so for more info." We can't help but wonder if this has anything to do with EA's May 2008 acquisition of MMO social network, Rupture. Carrie also briefly mentions something about a "cards" page in the Tome. Will WAR be getting a trading card game? Does this signal an imminent RMT or free-2-play model? That's just speculation at this point but we'll keep our ear to the ground for you.
Mythic's Carrie Gouskos on Warhammer's ToK and hints of patch 1.3
The 1.2 patch for Warhammer Online is barely a week old, but Chaos Moon managed to speak with Mythic's Carrie Gouskos about many a things -- including some hints for the 1.3 patch. There was also some general discussion of future updates to the Tome of Knowledge and much love from Carrie concerning the Book of Grudges mod. We're pretty excited to hear stat tracking for Scenarios and oRvR battles are on their way.Of course the big news concerns clues of what to expect in the next big patch. Following some of Carrie's comments, it sounds as though the Tome of Knowledge could be getting a new feature or two in the 1.3. update. Additionally, some further UI information and visual improvements are on the was as well -- although Carrie mentions the visual boost will be minor.What sorts of UI improvements could be on the way? The added layer of information to the open party and world map systems in 1.2 have been very well received, but going from Carrie's comments it seems as though something much more exciting is on the way. Given the size of the first two live events, something tells us Mythic will be showing off whatever it is they're working on next in a big way. Mythic has announced the first expansion to Warhammer Online! Check out the announcement itself, the two brand-new classes coming to the game, and the enormous new dungeon/zone slated for a few months away! Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
Massively goes to WAR: The Tome of Knowledge
We've talked with designer Carrie Gouskos about her work on Warhammer Online's Tome of Knowledge and now you get to see what all of the fuss is about. This all-in-one in-game information tracker is so incredibly useful, every MMO on the market will implement a version of it in the next year or two. Yes, it's that good. Think of it as a lore wiki, quest tracker and creature database tailored to your individual character and available at any time while in the game. Check out the gallery to see what we are talking about. Click to Begin >> %Gallery-21881%
EA Mythic gives fans an in-depth look at Warhammer Online
So, Warhammer Online was just delayed for another few months. Fans are preordering the game like crazy, and why not with such a fantastic collectors edition? But what the heck have they been working on up there? Are they just larking around, making us wait? The answer to that is a categoric no, and to prove it EA Mythic has collaborated with Ten Ton Hammer to offer up a string of videos showing fans the current state of the game. This series is informative, extensive, and extremely exciting for anyone looking forward to the PvP-geared fantasy game. So what do they have on offer?How about a walkthrough of the bastion of Order, the city of Altdorf? This tour examines everything from taverns to towers, and everything in between. They have up a tour of the Inevitable City, the Chaos-warped counterpart to Karl Franzs' beautiful metropolis. Fans of 'not-combat' will enjoy a discussion of the character customization system called dyes, as well as even more details on the trophies system. Those same folks might enjoy this little video about ... crafting! Yes, crafting in Warhammer Online is covered by this video demonstration. If you're like me, you're really looking forward to the Tome of Knowledge, one of the game's most unique features. A great walkthrough from Carrie Gouskos gives us the ins and outs of this multi-layered achievement/unlock/lore/map/quest-tracking system. Finally (and perhaps most fantastically) Josh Drescher and Paul Barnett sat down with the TTH folks to talk about the big picture, the thousand-foot view, and why they have no problem taking their time getting the game out.
