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Mark Jacobs elaborates on Call to Arms and Warhammer's future
Warhammer Online GM, Mark Jacobs, paid a visit to the Warhammer Vault message boards to elaborate on the new Call to Arms live expansion and future incoming changes. While he believes this live expansion is one of the largest subscription-based content upgrades/addons done by any MMO developer, he wants to assure everyone that this is only a part of their development plans for the next several months of WAR.The first part of his letter deals with the Call to Arms expansion and hits on topics such as the new careers, the live events, and the Tomb Kings themed RvR dungeon. The second part talks about some of the major game improvements fans can expect to see over this expansion arc, including: bug fixes, better fortress performance, RvR changes and improvements (e.g., keep upgrades, zone domination system, additional rewards, etc.), career balancing, and increased polish (e.g., armour and mount diversity, mail system improvements, enhanced guild rewards, etc.). All of these latter improvements will be coming in the 1.2 patch, which should hit the public test server in early February. While not giving us details on the content or a timeframe, Mark stated that even more game improvements will be coming in a 1.3 patch.It seems many players were expecting specific details about these upcoming changes. Mark responded by saying he is unwilling to post official patch notes until they have been thoroughly tested on the public test server. You can keep up with Mark's comments on this subject in the Warhammer Alliance dev post tracker.
The Daily Grind: Choppa or Slayer?
Oi you gits! We'z been choppin' stunties for months witout you! We chopped and chopped till their bloody heads was all over the floor. But where was you? Off with the Bigguns and the Squigies and summat. Leavin' us to do all the Choppin witout help. We likes dat fine, don't you mistake, but more choppin's always better than less choppin, I always say. So what do you say, you going to start choppin' with us? I think that's a mistake, lads and lassies. Don't listen to that befanged mongrel over there. He'd as soon gut ye as look at ye. Now, my life has been wasted. My honor has been ruined and the goal of me father's blood oath is forever beyond my reach. My life is at an end ... I just haven't died yet. If you want to eat wee babies and gut cats, go with him. But if you want to find an honorable end among the orange, you want to go to WAR with me. Are ye in, or out?
Mythic's official website highlights the new Call to Arms expansion
All through the mid-day we've been talking about the newly-announced Call to Arms expansion coming for Warhammer Online. It's impressive stuff, with brand-new classes, an enormous new mega-zone, and a brand-new holiday event slated all for the next few months. That ambitious schedule and the great information we've had on the site today is great to read through.For more details, head on over to the official Mythic website for their take on the events. Their preview of the expansion itself gives a great timetable on the events: Call to Arms: Bitter Rivals Live Event (March): The Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer answer the Call to Arms and join WAR! (March) Call to Arms: Beyond the Sands Live Event (April) Call to Arms: Rise of the Tomb Kings Live Event (May) Land of the Dead Opens (June) They also have more information on the Bitter Rivals event (including some hints about the tasks we'll be taking on). And as for the Night of Murder, well, they have a bunch of information about how we'll be marked for death come Valentine's Day (as in the picture above). Head over to the Herald for more of those great WAR-related details. 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!
Valentine's Day in Warhammer Online announced as the Night of Murder
Alongside the announcement of the Call to Arms expansion, the Bitter Rivals event introducing the Choppa and Slayer, and the Lands of the Dead mega-zone, Jeff Hickman revealed to us earlier this week that Valentine's Day will be a scream in Warhammer Online. Tying into the recent 'bloody valentines' sent to bloggers, Jeff walks us through the Night of Murder.Warhammer Executive Producer Jeff Hickman: We have a new event coming out soon, it's our Valentine's Day event. Starting in Mid-February it begins before call to arms, but we've been planning this event for some time. It really highlights some of the things we're trying to do with live events that are different and unique. It's an event that happens in the IP called "The Night of Murder." We felt that was appropriate for Valentine's Day.The Night of Murder is this great week-long event, very RvR-centered. As a player I can go get a murder quest, where I will be asked to go assassinate five marked targets. We've put some interesting tech in that causes enemy players to be marked. They're literally marked on the battlefield, a big skull hovers over their heads. The players don't know that they're marked, though, so you get to the battlefield and you see your opponents arrayed against you ... and they don't know who you'll be going for. Unbeknownst to you, you might be targeted as well. So it will be pretty exciting.Some of these marked targets, when you loot them, they'll drop a skull. One of the tasks for the Night of Murder is to play a game of skull tossing; literally on the battlefield there will be people tossing their dead enemy's skulls back and forth to each other. You'll see skulls flying around, all over the place. And in some rare cases when I kill a marked enemy target I'll be able to loot his head. When I loot that, it will give me the ability to send my enemy a special Valentine's Day surprise. A Night of Murder message about the trophy I got at his expense.It's clever, it's comical, but there are just a ton of cool new things we're doing with that event. Things we haven't done before. 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!
Mega-dungeon called the Lands of the Dead coming to Warhammer Online
Darkness Falls. Those two little words conjure up amazing vistas to players that delved deeply into Dark Age of Camelot. The release of that content in that game - an enormous dungeon fraught with danger and loot, and disputed by vicious PvP skirmishes - is arguably the finest hour of Mythic's development. Hearing Warhammer Online's Jeff Hickman talk about new content that harkens back to that style of gameplay may mean a return to truely rare form for the still-struggling title.In the same discussion with Mr. Hickman where we unveiled the new classes coming to WAR and the Valentine's Day event, he walked us through the capstone of the Call to Arms expansion. The Land of the Dead, a massive egyptian-themed zone, will be unleashed on the armies of Order and Destruction sometime around May. We have full details on the expansion's crown jewel below the cut, including why they went in this direction and what you're likely to see the first time you set foot in the zone. Check it out below!%Gallery-43282%
The Dwarf Slayer and Orc Choppa coming to Warhammer Online with a live event
The Mythic developers have been having a little fun with the blogosphere over the last two weeks, sending out clippers and movies hinting at what might be coming down the pipe for Warhammer Online. Despite the teasing, it looks like fan supposition about what these gag gifts mean was entirely accurate. Today we've been walking through a discussion we had with Mythic's Jeff Hickman, and he confirmed that the Dwarf Slayer and Orc Choppa are indeed going to WAR. In fact, the very first event in the Call to Arms live event expansion will be Bitter Rivals, an event much like the one that introduced the Blackguard and Knight of the Blazing Sun to the game late last year. Join us below the cut as we talk to Jeff about the new classes, the event that will introduce them, and how Bitter Rivals differs from the much-beloved Heavy Metal live event.%Gallery-43282%
Mythic announces the first live expansion to Warhammer Online!
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Warhammer_Online_first_expansion_has_new_classes_huge_zone'; Massively.com recently had the chance to speak with Warhammer Online Executive Producer Jeff Hickman. Mr. Hickman laid out for us the much anticipated 'bombshell' news for their PvP-focused MMO: an entire expansion being released over the next few months as live events. Warhammer Executive Producer Jeff Hickman: We've been launched for four or five months now, and all we've done for this time is looking at the game, listening to our players, playing the game ourselves. We've been drilling down into all of the little pieces that weren't quite right for us. We've been looking at client/server stability, what we can do with the RvR system, introducing the two new classes ... we've drilled down on any and all concerns that players might have to perfect the game as it stands right now. With that starting to be under control, we looked ahead and said to ourselves, "we have about four or five months to do some really interesting, cool new events." We're calling it a live expansion. We're trying to hit really hard for players that haven't tried Warhammer, or perhaps players that tried it and then went off to play Lich King or something like that. We want them to come back, see all the improvements we've made, and all the new content coming up. We're calling it "a Call to Arms." Read on below the cut for full details on the expansion, head over to the official site for their take, or click through to one of our related posts for further information: The Choppa and Slayer enter the game in "Bitter Rivals" The Land of the Dead recalls Darkness Falls in an all-new mega-zone Valentine's Day gets bloody as "The Night of Murder" %Gallery-21882%
