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Further details on Warhammer Online's new user journey
One of the features that's been mentioned repeatedly in conjunction with Warhammer Online's upcoming patch 1.3.2 is the New User Journey, an attempt to streamline and consolidate the path of new players. The most recent developer diary outlines in detail the reasons for the revamp as well as the new path of the game's experience, which the article mentions is designed to help the entire playerbase in the long run.Highlighting the need for accessibility, the entry discusses the change to all players starting in the same location, explaining how it can help ensure other players in the area for the game's public quests. It also allows for the early questing experience to be more thoroughly revamped and improved, with all of the players starting out funneled through a single area. The original starting areas will still be available for players who want to explore them, but will no longer be mandatory.The diary also points out some of the other new features added, including detailed tutorial windows to help introduce concepts in-play as well as an improvement to pop-up tooltips. Combined with global chat channels to help bolster the community, the focus is clearly on getting players unified and up to speed in the most efficient way possible, helping to diminish the barrier to entry. Take a look at the full article for more in-depth features including a closer look at the tutorial window.
The Daemon Moon rises over WAR
"Another lovely day begins for ghosts and ghouls with greenish skin, so close your eyes and you will find that you've arrived in Frightenstein!" With Halloween a few short weeks away, Mythic just treated us to a sneak peek of their upcoming Chaos-themed Live Event called Daemon Moon Rising. If you thought they were going to simply dust off last year's Halloween event, Witching Night, the trick's on you! Okay; no more lame puns, we promise. Warhammer Online's monthly events are something to behold because they're usually done very well and bring some diversity to the otherwise singular purpose of stomping your enemy on the battlefield. We think Live Events are the epitome of horizontal expansion. From October 23 to November 2, players will put on a number of spooky masks that grant special abilities and complete their event checklists. Of special note is the Daemonball Rally RvR public quest. Think of it as rugby... with decapitation. They're also opening up the Highpass Cemetary scenario to all tiers. You can check out the official video podcast here with all the (pumpkin) spicy details. Oops, we couldn't resist!
AGDC09: Jeff Hickman speaks on WAR's shortcomings
During one of the many speeches being given at the Austin Game Developers Conference, Jeff Hickman, producer of Warhammer Online, spoke candidly on what he thought were WAR's failures and where Mythic could have done better. While Hickman has cited more than a few reasons WAR has been caught in the mire, the central theme to all of them is the ease of PvE gameplay and a game that doesn't inspire social interactions.Hickman points out that they wanted the game to include a full battery of social features, including open groups, public quests, and other grouping tools, but they failed to design the game itself to encourage grouping. Part of this lies in the player versus environment quests where the gameplay was too easy and players didn't have a reason to group up.
City siege improvements featured in WAR 1.3.1 patch
It's no secret that Warhammer Online's tier four endgame and city siege specifically are a bit lackluster. Mythic has admitted this by ranking it third place in their list of five key goals for the game's improvement. Well, just over a month after announcing endgame improvement as one of their top priorities, the studio is testing out new city siege mechanics and they sound quite interesting.One of the biggest issues players currently have with city siege is that it features way too much PvE and not enough PvP (or in WAR's case, RvR). Patch 1.3.1 is introducing several improvements in this area. Sieged cities now have three states: Contested, captured, and rebuilding. Attackers and defenders will be present and battling it out in each state and the contested state public quests will benefit from a new design. Warlord encounters are now instanced and balanced for 24 players, allowing multiple groups to participate. Finally, there will be a number of siege UI improvements allowing you to keep better track of your realm's progress.Nearly every area of the game is being touched in some way by the 1.31 patch. Take a look at the comprehensive patch notes on the Warhammer Herald to observe their true breadth and feel free to give them a try on the public test server.
The next level of questing
Elnia at the Pink Pigtail Inn has some excellent and interesting advice for Blizzard's quest designers (or whoever they hire for the current position). As big a component as quests are in the game, they haven't been innovated on much since the game's release. Blizzard has played around a little bit with allowing us to repeat certain quests, and they've streamlined the group questing mechanic, but other than that, quests are pretty much the same: pick up a task, do it, and bring it back for a reward.So how can it be done differently? Elnia has some great ideas: she asks for quests that span a little farther, that push players through a storyline that might even follow them all the way up to 80 (of course, there are quests like that, though they're few and far between -- and not all players have the patience to finish them). Rewards could be mixed up, too -- instead of the old gold and XP, how about some profession skill, or a tradeoff of badges based on certain quests done. Finally, Elnia suggests that every quest in the game become repeatable. Questing is paced to keep us interested in from 1-60, but we all know how the game works now -- why not let us do some of our favorite quests over more than once?I'd suggest we go even farther -- Warhammer Online offers Public Quests that are an interesting twist on the usual "go kill boars" mechanic. I'd like to see branching quests with more than one outcome -- maybe a moral choice to make that affects the storyline of the quest you're doing. And talking real pie-in-the-sky here, I'd like to see questgivers treat you different based on the way you look or maybe what title you've got equipped. If you've got "Jenkins," they might not expect you to do much, but with "Champion of Ulduar" over your head, they should probably be groveling at your feet.
Games Day '09: All about Warhammer Online's live events with Mark Davis pt. 2
How long does it take to put together your average live event? We usually take about three to six weeks for brainstorming and conception. Then there's the approval process, where I send the ideas to my boss, who sends them to "The Hickman," who sends them upstairs, who sends that to Games Workshop to make sure we're staying true to their concepts. Plus we have to coordinate with all of the other departments, like RvR, the items team, and Combat and Careers. Then the production side takes another three weeks to maybe seven weeks on top of that. We'll be planning and producing the event usually the version before the live event is scheduled to take place, otherwise it would never be done in time. Then after that we'll have the playtesting and the QA sessions to make sure the bugs are worked out, and that takes another week to two weeks. So, in short, you're looking at three months of work from inception to the final event. And these aren't available on the test server, right? Well... they're not suppose to be available on the test server. They're suppose to be hidden.. *smiles* But we have little breaks where the live events show up on the test server for a couple seconds. "Just the sheer joy these events provide players should be reason enough for another developer [to make them.]" It amazes me because in that short period of time when the live event is available, somebody will screenshot all of the objectives for all of the quests and then have that up on the internet before we can get the live event down. We try our best, but it always seems to slip out for a matter of seconds. We want to be secretive and we want players to have a sense of discovery with our live events, plus they really can't be tested publically in such a short window. Live events focus on the whole world, and getting testing and feedback done is not all that useful to us. What's your favorite part about the most recent live event? From a developer's perspective, it was the opening cinematic to the RvR public quests. We did a custom cinematic with an airship flying in and exploding which results in the start of the RvR PQs. That was surely my favorite part, it was glorious! From a player's perspective, it was the RvR that occured because of the live event. We created a center point for RvR in the event in Thunder Mountain. There were a number of different tasks that centered on this one area and that area was a hot spot for RvR the whole week. From the warcamp landing to the hot spot, the travel time was only about 3 minutes, but people in my warband would be killing others the entire way there. Thunder Mountain was locked most of the time when I was fighting in this event, but the RvR was just hot all the time. Whenever I was looking for a fight, I just went to Thunder Mountain because I knew it would be there. We had warbands coming in and attempting to camp the area, but they could only hold it for a small amount of time before another warband came in to unseat them. It was a lot of fun. Many other developers don't bother with live events. Plus when they give out exclusive items, they always seem to show up later and become unexclusive. So what would you say to another developer who was thinking of doing these exclusive live events? Just look at the metrics. For our game we get more gameplay, more people in the game, and a lot of positive feedback. These events are only a limited time, so players come in and play and the realize all of the possiblities our game has to offer in that limited time. Just the sheer joy these events provide players should be reason enough for another developer. "Live events gets to take all of that great stuff and put it all together into this nice package of fun." We even see all of this in the cold metrics. Look server population the day of the event and the day after the event, and the event population will be higher. Every game has its niche. For Warhammer, it's the RvR, the public quests, the living guilds, the city sieges. You hear us harp on this stuff over and over, because it's what we do. Live events gets to take all of that great stuff and put it all together into this nice package of fun. We bring to the front what we do the best through our live events. We've got events planned for the rest of the year. We just put up the Northern Watch weekend event, and it was immensely successful. There was only a title offered as the reward, and it was easily one of the most successful events we've done. Any sneak peeks you can give us as to what's coming? Ah... well I can't really say anything because we need to go through all of that long approval process first, but the live event in the summer is going to be doing something that I don't think any MMO has done before. Ever. It's that level of magnitude for that event. We're going to challenge what people have come to expect out of our live events, I will say that much. Ha ha, sweet! Ok then, let's end it out. Order or Destruction? Order all the way. Engineer, baby! I feel like the combat and careers guys made that class for me. You blow stuff up, you shoot people, you have explosions! What could be better? The sands of the Tomb Kings are coming as the final release in the Call to Arms live expansion, the Land of the Dead approaches! Massively has your back with coverage from Mythic Entertainment at Games Day '09, so get your WAAGGGHHH ready for RvR mayhem as Massively re-arms for WAR!
Games Day '09: All about Warhammer Online's live events with Mark Davis
Mark Davis knows Warhammer Online's live events well. He should, because he's the man behind them! During Games Day '09, we had the chance to catch up with the live events lead and discuss some shop talk with him -- including a look at the newest live event, "Rise of the Tomb Kings," and a little about what goes on behind the scenes.How long does it take for a live event to be produced? What are some of Mark's favorite moments? What can we expect in the live events to come? And, most importantly, what are we going to find in the Rise of the Tomb Kings? All of these questions, and more, are answered within!
Games Day '09: Our impressions of Warhammer's Land of the Dead
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Massively_s_impressions_of_Warhammer_s_Land_of_the_Dead'; So we've been over the cold, unfeeling facts about Land of the Dead. It's big, it's a throwback zone to action RPGs, it has RvR and PvE, and it's filled with mummies. But you don't want the facts, right? You want to know how it plays and you want to know if it's worth your time to pick up Warhammer or resubscribe to the game.During my time at Games Day, I got the chance to participate in a bunch of the PQs in the new zone and try out a few areas of the Tomb of the Vulture Lord, the capstone dungeon of the whole experience. I got to be shanked by swinging blades, pierced by surprise dart traps, and I even got to wear the Sovereign armor set, the pinnacle armor of the game. (Yes, it looks completely badass.)
Games Day '09: Our impressions of Warhammer's Land of the Dead pt. 2
Get caught in one of the clouds and you'll find yourself teleported to the bottom of one of the nearby tombs, stuck in a sarcophagus, and taking damage from the curse. Your friends can't get into the tombs due to barriers that are placed over the doors, turning this into a race to get out of the tomb before you die. These moments were filled with frantic cheers and laughter as we all danced around trying to avoid the dust clouds, accompanied by laughs of anguish as people would get caught and stuck inside of the tomb. Overall, the PQs are really enjoyable and a nice step away from "kill, rinse, repeat." Even if they involve killing monsters, there's usually some sort of trick to the PQ that makes it into a very active experience, rather than a strict button mashing period. Plus if that last boss battle sounded crazy, think of how it could go when the zone flips sides and the enemy begins running in. Now you have a boss, enemy players, and dust clouds. Fights in the tombs while curse is in effect, anyone? Luring enemies to stand in the way of dust clouds? Eventually though, we were taken away from the PQs and had the chance to step into the Tomb of the Vulure Lord itself -- testing our mettle against the various traps. The first one that stood in our way was a hallway filled with swinging pendulum blades. These blades were stacked very close together, with little room between them to stand without getting yourself sliced in half. One hit kills you, so don't try running through aimlessly because it's not going to end well. This trap is all about timing, placement, and pattern recognition -- a classic console adventure trap. What I liked the most about these traps was that they don't require the whole party to make it. Three people is all you need out of your group of six, and dying in the dungeon will just respawn you at the entrance (as long as you maintain control, of course.) "It's very different, and it's alot of fun." Eventually making it past that trap gave us access to the Terracotta Army hall -- a room filled with terracotta statues of soldiers and chariots. The whole room could be categorized under "things that never end well" because, as you would expect, walking next to some statues causes them to come to life. This whole encounter is a hybrid PQ/boss battle, as killing enough soldiers will awaken the final boss of the room, an angry skeleton who switches between different stances while you do battle with him. Overall, I have to admit, I wasn't expecting this. I was expecting an area and a dungeon filled with standard MMO trappings of trash mob pulls, boring grindfests, and RvR mixed in with all of that. What I got was a very carefully crafted zone that caters to all types of MMO players and merges PvP content with PvE content in a really inventive fashion. Even the Tomb of the Vulture Lord doesn't feel like a traditional MMO dungeon. It's an adventure through a tomb rather than a series of trash pulls with scary bosses. It tells a story and immerses you rather than just throwing themed encounters at you. Sure, this mystique will wear off over time, but I don't see this dungeon becoming something like other MMO dungeons. It's very different, and it's alot of fun. Land of the Dead is totally something you need to experience. The sands of the Tomb Kings are coming as the final release in the Call to Arms live expansion, the Land of the Dead approaches! Massively has your back with coverage from Mythic Entertainment at Games Day '09, so get your WAAGGGHHH ready for RvR mayhem as Massively re-arms for WAR!
Champions Online to incorporate Warhammer's public quests
One of the biggest innovations Warhammer Online brought to the MMO industry was easily its Public Quest system. The ability to share a big heroic encounter with a group of friends or even strangers is tons of fun, although without other people PQs suffer from an acute case of boringmentia. But that hasn't stopped Cryptic from applying their own version of the concept in Champions Online, according to an interview between Cryptic's Bill Roper and MMORPG.com from GDC 2009.And who could blame them? The basic idea behind Public Quests is very solid, it's primarily the implementation that seemed to be off in Warhammer Online. A key point is the amount of PQs in the game. If Champions Online doesn't go overkill with them, then the lack of people conundrum may not arise. Beyond that, many other problems such as scalability and equipment progression could cease to be issues -- less is more, basically.For Mythic, making the earlier PQs more solo friendly seems to have helped alleviate the problem. But considering that these quests are supposed to be public, that approach really does feel like a band-aid rather than a solution. It really could simply be that too many of the admittedly fun encounters in too close a proximity is just a bad idea.
The Digital Continuum: Checking in with Warhammer Online
It's been a while since Warhammer Online was released and in that time we've seen a lot of crazy stuff happen. Namely, Wrath of the Lich King launched, became the fastest selling PC game of all time and rocketed World of Warcraft into an even high number of subscriptions. And with everyone spending the last couple of months in Azeroth -- myself included, admittedly -- I felt it was about time to hang up my Death Knight armor, grab a halberd and run around as a crazed Dark Elf wearing way too many spikes and blades for his own good.
WAR Grab Bag No. 6: oRvR, Easy PQs, and dungeons
The latest edition of Warhammer Online's Grab Bag feature is up, and as well as a question-and-answer segment, we are treated to the first part of a feature on PvE dungeons, written by content developer Gary Astelford. A couple of the questions are directed at Open RvR; we're told to keep an eye out for some changes that will "make zone control more intuitive and rewarding" in the future. The new Easy PQ system is also asked about, and we learn that although the influence bonus for getting to the next stage of a PQ will be less (past Stage 2), all other influence gains are the same as a normal PQ. Oh, and those fancy statues that the top players have built in their honor to reflect the leaderboards? Expect enemies to be able to smash them down if the city becomes contested.The dungeon feature looks at four different instances, two for lower levels and two for the level 40s. The dungeon entrances are pointed out, and their theme and lore are discussed -- it's in no way spoilerific, and is meant merely to entice players to visit and discover more for themselves. Part 1 of the feature includes the Altdorf Sewers, the Sacellum, Bilerot Burrows and Sigmar's Crypt.
Warhammer Online community claims contribution system a sham
One of the first and often touted systems being developed by Mythic for Warhammer Online was contribution. Anyone who's played a through a few Public Quests or Keep captures knows the contribution system is supposed to monitor how everyone plays and then dole out a proper score before a dice roll is applied to give it all a twinge of randomness. Well, a post over at Wizards & Wenches claims that they've discovered the secret formula to contribution: it doesn't exist.The claim -- which has discussions threads at forums, along with screenshots -- is that when a player enters a zone, they are given a dice roll that applies to them until they leave the zone or log out. This means that a player who gets first will continue to do so, no matter what, until another player with a higher roll comes along.
WAR hotfix patch cleans up quests and PQs, hides EULA
Following the release of patch 1.0.5, a further update to Warhammer Online has addressed a large number of bugs in various quests and PQs, the full list of which can be found in the hot fix patch notes. A handful of RVR-related problems were also quashed, most notably the lack of Healer NPCs in Kadrin Valley warcamp, and some missing set items in Tier 3 Gold Keep bags.Further tinkering with client performance and stability made it into this hot fix as well, with a focus on "periods of intense combat" -- we'll have to see how that one pans out. However, arguably the best part of the patch is one of the simplest changes -- WAR's EULA will now only need to be agreed to when changes are made to it. Joy! It's the little things in life that make us happy.
Massively's Guide to Warhammer's Witching Night
With the introduction of Patch 1.0.4, Witching Night has hit Warhammer Online. This is the first seasonal event the game has seen since its launch in September, and Mythic are doing their part to keep up with the whole "MMO holiday" thing that is so popular across many games. Participating in the events of Witching Night gives you a chance to get your hands on a number of rewards, including masks, cloaks and titles. Although the special PQs have some irritating aspects (detailed in our guide), you'll still probably find yourself coming out to see what all the fuss is about. We've made a gallery guide of all that Witching Night has to offer, so click on the button below to find out all there is to know, before the event ends on November the 2nd! Witching Night '08! > > %Gallery-34148% Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
WAR's first city siege: The king is dead. Long live the king.
It was only the other day when we reported that the first Warhammer Online city siege endgame had begun. Initial reports indicated that a relatively small group of players, in average gear, managed to capture Altdorf on the EU server Karak Eight Peaks, partially due to bugs in the game. However, rumors of the death of Emperor Karl Franz have been exaggerated. More details have come to light since then; Electronic Arts contacted MMO blogger Tobold, and set the record straight. As it turns out, Destruction didn't fully capture Altdorf. Rather, they put it in a contested state, and the would-be conquerors on the Destruction side were ousted by Order before they could complete enough public quests to reach the final battle against Emperor Karl Franz. Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
The Digital Continuum: WAR's secret PvP sauce
Before the game's launch day came, a lot of people found themselves thinking there was a stigma that came with Warhammer Online. There was a concern that you couldn't play the game without having to participate in PvP or that the PvE content assumed a much smaller role within the game. People were just plain scared/worried/concerned about PvP in general. Today when I log in I'll find countless strangers and friends all participating in some form of PvP content during their play session. So just what is Mythic's apparently potent secret sauce?
The Digital Continuum: The calm before the WAR storm
Do you know where your developers are tonight? Chances are the guys and gals over at Mythic Entertainment are busy scrambling to triple-check everything for the second time today. Meanwhile, the rest of us are awaiting one of three "launch" days with bated breath. Many of you are probably waiting for Tuesday, when the general pre-orders get to join the head start. However for a lot of players day one is coming tomorrow. So on the eve of "Hurricane WAR" approaching, I felt like going over some random bits about the game before it's no longer a beta and instead a newly launched MMORPG.
WAR's Public Quests get called anti-social
Ryan Shwayder has posted a short rant on why he feels Warhammer Online's Public Quests are anti-social. His reasoning behind the claim comes down to the notion that because players can be jerks, they'll always act the role. We're apt to not subscribe to the idea that everyone online become dissenting human beings, because if that were true than every MMO's social aspects -- which is all of them -- wouldn't ever work.We're not saying that PQs are perfect, but they're hardly breeding grounds for total infantile behavior. These are a new form of PvE and they're going to take some time for Mythic to work out the kinks. We're also inclined to mention that nobody wants to play with people who take every chance they get to screw someone over. Even with anonymity in play, people will still remember someone who was going out of their way to be a real pain in the neck. Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out all of our previous Warhammer Online features, and don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
Terra Nova looks back (and forward) at the Diku legacy
EverQuest, World of Warcraft, The Lord of the Rings Online, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and many other MMOs all have one important thing in common. Well, okay; they have a lot of things in common -- like about 85% or more of their gameplay mechanics. But the main thing -- indeed, the reason why they have so much in common -- is that they are all descendants of a kind of text MUD game called Diku.Acknowledging that, virtual worlds blog Terra Nova published a "State of the Diku" article for the year 2008. The article was written by Timothy Burke. It's mostly a dispassionate look at game design -- serious business. Burke starts out questioning the purpose of "vendor trash" drops (or grey items as they're generally known in many popular contemporary MMOs). Then he analyzes the public quests of Warhammer Online, viewing them as a positive variation on traditional Diku design.If you're into thnking critically about MMO design, it's worth checking out. We take for granted the fact that most of today's MMOs are based on the Diku formula; maybe that means we're clinging to old ideas that don't make a lot of sense in today's world.
