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The siege begins with Warhammer Online's patch 1.3.5
If there's been a recurring theme in recent news about Warhammer Online, it's been the promise that 1.3.5 will be a glorious patch to behold. At the heart are the revamped RvR-focused City Siege events, letting players assault the center of the enemy's power. Last week was the public testing of both redesigned cities, and it must have gone quite well, because the patch has hit the live servers. Now, instead of fighting against the city's ruler in a PvE format, players will fight alongside the heavy hitters in a 24 vs. 24 battle. The changes to the cities aren't the only improvements to the game, however. Mythic has also added several quality-of-life improvements such as changes to inventory spaces and mini-map highlights to help point players to regions of interest. City sieges are the lynchpin, however, and as was discussed during our recent chat with executive producer Carrie Gouskos they're part of the game's major push to celebrate RvR in all its forms. Warhammer Online players can take a look at the full patch notes here -- or just get in the game and into the action as fast as possible.
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.
Public testing for Warhammer Online's city sieges
The major gameplay push for Warhammer Online of late has been the imminent patch 1.3.5, bringing with it the fully RvR-focused city sieges. Developer diaries have explained its creation at length, and it's been getting closed testing for some time, but now it's time for it to face up to the watchful eye of the public. Starting on Tuesday, May 11th, both Altdorf and the Inevitable City will be getting tested in their new incarnations, and as always players are invited to take part in the mayhem. Altdorf will be the first up for assault on Tuesday at 8:00 PM EST (5 PM PST), with the Inevitable City beginning its siege on Thursday the 13th at the same hour. After the testing has taken place, the development team will be available for an informal question and answer session on the official Mythic Ventrilo server, as if players needed an extra incentive. The official announcement includes information about copying one's character to the test server, so all Warhammer Online players are encouraged to participate.
Warhammer Online and Dark Age of Camelot olive branches now available
The past couple of months have not been kind to Mythic Entertainment, with an uncomfortable double-header of a huge billing fiasco followed by the closure of the Mythic Store. The billing especially produced a great deal of outrage from players, understandably concerned about their account security as well as the potential impact on their bank accounts. Even reversing the charges didn't leave everyone completely mollified -- but Mythic has put in the effort to try and not just apologize and reverse the error, but help regain the trust and goodwill of the players. Both Warhammer Online and Dark Age of Camelot players will receive two items of their choice on all current and future characters, with Warhammer Online mailing out tokens and Dark Age of Camelot simply allowing you to talk to a Royal Accountant. The items include dyes, decorations, temporary disguises, and other fun toys for players to help recover from the aftershocks. On the off chance that you didn't receive the items and were billed multiple times, the team at Mythic has a specific appeals process to ensure correct delivery. As bad as the error was, it's good to see that players will be compensated nicely for as long as they keep playing.
Warhammer Online talks more about the design of RvR Sieges
If there's a part of Warhammer Online's upcoming patch 1.3.5 that should excite veteran players -- and there is -- it's the shift of city sieges to an RvR-designed focus. One of the central selling points of the game has always been the strength of its PvP, and as the game works to shore up its weaknesses one of the major foci has been enhancing the PvP experience. Content developer Keaven Freeman has penned a developer diary explaining the issues, pitfalls, and ultimate results of the design process and the shift in ethos. As Freeman puts it, the sieges haven't moved completely to PvP only, simply because it doesn't feel quite right to have the capture experience feel equally inviting in an enemy city or an allied one. But the PvE elements exist, from the sound of it, simply to focus attacks on things other than players at times, rather than to give hordes of NPCs to fight. In addition, the diary talks about the cascading control point system, which builds a network of control allowing players to spearhead an assault into the heart of the city. For Warhammer Online players looking forward to answering the call of their respective faction, the diary should be both enlightening and interesting.
Warhammer Online brings 1.3.5 to be tested
With all of the billing nightmares apparently resolved, complete with the peacemaking gifts, Warhammer Online is ready to move back to its core focus. The development team has been talking about the improvements set to come with patch 1.3.5, continuing the game's process of strengthening the Realm vs. Realm gameplay by adding fully PvP-focused city sieges. On top of the improvements to Scenarios and the addition of PvP-bought weaponry, the game is playing to its greatest assets. How successful it's been will soon be in the hands of the players, as 1.3.5 is going to the public test server. The obvious large-scale changes can take some of the flash away from smaller changes, such as allowing Marauders the option to properly dual-wield and improved AFK flagging in scenarios. Numerous bugfixes, changes to NPC locations, and revisions to the Open RvR currency are also present in the patch. And that's not even talking about inventory space... all in all, it promises much for players to be happy about, and little to be disappointed with. Warhammer Online's players can take a hop to the test server Warpstone to take a look at all the changes, and those who'd prefer to abstain can take heart that the changes will likely be going live soon.
The Daily Grind: Warhammer Online's billing woes
It started as innocently as any tale of this sort could possibly start, but Warhammer Online's latest problem has people up in arms, from veterans to those who've only played a few hours. And understandably so, since dozens of charges that overdraw your bank account are fairly universally seen as a bad thing. The MMO blogosphere has erupted with posts on the incident, and even Mythic Entertainment's attempts to calm the waters have left several people feeling unhappy (to put it mildly). Billing issues happen with online purchases, but rarely of this magnitude, and rarely on the heels of a push to involve the community. It hasn't been an easy ride for Warhammer Online thus far, so we're curious to know what our readers think. Is this a death knell for the game, or just a really big mistake? Does it make you feel more nervous about giving away your payment information? Whether you play or not, what do you think would be fair compensation for those affected? Do you see this as a major lesson for the industry? On an issue like this, nearly everyone has an opinion, so we want to hear yours.
Billing issues hitting Warhammer Online and Dark Age of Camelot
Even when everything's going just fine, monthly billing in an MMO brings up the problems of players feeling entitled to quite a bit of free content and getting rather annoyed if it's not forthcoming. It also raises questions of how badly you really want to play the game in question. Luckily for most games, the rebilling cycle for subscriptions is automatic and requires no conscious attention from fans... at least, unless something goes wrong. And unfortunately for Warhammer Online and Dark Age of Camelot subscribers, something did indeed go wrong. Players are being billed more than once for their subscriptions. The customer service team at Mythic Entertainment was quick to explain that they were aware of the issue and working with their vendor to resolve it. Unfortunately, the official solution requires a call and a fair bit of time spent confirming and reversing the charges, rather than being a straight refund behind the scenes. As the game's studio is hosting several of Warhammer Online's blogging pundits, it could hardly have come at a worse time. Warhammer Online and Dark Age of Camelot players are advised to read the official statement and check the charges on your account very carefully.
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 streamlines trial transition
It's been a while since Warhammer Online moved to an unlimited free trial, allowing players to experience the Tier 1 game without any time restrictions. It seems to have been a pretty good move for the game, and they're obviously happy enough with how it's been going to sweeten the deal for trial players. Previously, players would have to purchase a full copy of the game to continue with their adventures; now, they just need to start up a monthly subscription. The first month will be billed and the player's account will immediately be unlocked for the entire game. Of course, it's not quite the same as buying an official copy -- you don't get the extra free month of gameplay, nor any of the actual peripherals in the box. But it's a good step to making Warhammer Online more accessible for players who enjoy the trial and want to jump right in. Considering that there's been recent positive talk about both the reaction to the unlimited trial and the possibilities of an expansion, here's hoping that the easier barrier to entry is a step toward revitalizing the game.
BioWare talks Warhammer Online's forthcoming expansions
In a recent GDC 2010 interview with UGO, BioWare's Dr. Ray Muzyka said of Warhammer Online, "Right now it's [a] really profitable business unit within my group." Muzyka went on to say they've actually seen more people come into the game since enacting the free-to-play model on the game's earlier levels, and that he personally felt they were working. In fact, by the sounds of it, Warhammer Online is due for some interesting announcements in the future. Another of Muzyka's comments on the title was, "We have new content planned and all kinds of cool expansions for it." We don't know how much more clear cut a message can be than that. And hey, it's good news! We're looking forward to our playable Skaven and Lizardmen, Mythic and BioWare.
More woes with Warhammer Online's new weapons
It's a highly-anticipated feature, but it's been causing more than a few headaches for Warhammer Online's developers. We're speaking, of course, about the RvR weapons that were one of the large features of patch 1.3.4 and have been proving rather awkward in implementation. The short version is that when prices were lowered in a recent live change, there was a bit of an unintended rush of progression, which the developers stepped in as quickly as possible to fix. The problem arose with the people who had been progressing legitimately and wound up finding themselves denied their weapons and the corresponding achievements. The development team has posted a new item asking for players to petition the GMs in a specific fashion to resolve the issue, as well as giving some insight into what went wrong with the whole fix. In short, when they asked players to petition, they didn't ask for enough information the first time around. The statement includes an apology and an assurance that the matter will be quickly escalated for resolution. While it's been an unfortunate period of back and forth for Warhammer Online, hopefully the issue is finally resolved and players can begin enjoying their new battle-earned weaponry once again.
Warhammer Online tweaking their weapon prices
The problem with testing things in any MMO is that so much is contingent upon who decides to log in to the test servers and how much they're willing to play. Ultimately, for all we hate untested dungeons or mechanics or whatever, the only real test for them is to have them go live. Warhammer Online hasn't had too many problems with their most recent patch, but the exact pricing of the newly-introduced RvR weapons has been a bit of a sticky widget. So they've done the most responsible thing possible: they've gone ahead and tweaked the pricing right away. Low-Renown weapons are the most affected by the price cut, but every weapon has been given a nice drop in cost to make the more accessible. The full announcement goes into some detail about the philosophy behind it, no doubt part of the effort at increased transparency from the development team. Best of all, there's no delay in the changes -- they've already gone live and can be enjoyed by all players. So if you feared the long march in Warhammer Online for a decent weapon from RvR and for RvR, you've had a lucky day indeed.
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.
[Updated] WAR 1.3.4 patch coming soon, brings Scenario and City Siege enhancements plus more
Warhammer Online's 1.3.4 patch has gone live as of today is coming soon. The update includes a torrent of changes with a primary focus on streamlining Scenarios -- the game's beloved-yet-flawed open-ended PvE encounters easy-to-access PvP instances -- and City Sieges. These changes are aimed at pleasing the game's community, who've been giving plenty of feedback to Mythic. The original problem with Scenarios were a matter of player population. If you didn't have enough people to complete a 5 or 10-person start a Scenario, well, you were waiting in queue forever. Hopefully, the issue of achieving "critical mass" should all be in the past with the 1.3.4 patch. While new weapon rewards are being added to Scenarios, not everything is making the cut. Less popular Scenarios have been removed, although Mythic is promising that some will return in special weekend events. For an in-depth explanation of the Scenario changes, look no further than this awesome developer post. You can also find a shortlist of the various updates and improvements after the break. Or, if you prefer, you can find the full breakdown of patch 1.3.4 on Warhammer Online's official patch notes section. Update: Due to the 1.3.4 patch not going live as scheduled, we've updated the post to reflect as much. Additionally, we've corrected factual errors as well. Our apologies to anyone confused by the original post.
Development diary explains the Warhammer Online changes
The rebalancing of Warhammer Online's Scenarios has been an arduous process for both the players afraid of losing well-loved content and developers trying to narrow down the field to help everything achieve critical mass. After a fair dose of testing and evaluation, they've reached a point where they're comfortable letting development manager Mike Wyatt write up a development diary giving a clearer picture of what informed the rather sweeping changes to the game's structure. As Wyatt puts it, first of all, trimming the number of Scenarios consolidates the best-liked encounters and weeds out the less-popular versions. Second, a smaller number of Scenarios allows better balancing and tweaking of each, helping improve the overall experience. Lastly, the smaller number can have their rewards more easily brought in line, to avoid making one Scenario much more profitable than others. What follows is a listing of the Scenarios that will rotate in and out versus those that are constantly available, which seems a bit smaller than the last one we received. The diary makes no mention of population concerns, content loss, or the general community reaction (ranging from "meh" to "no"). Still, with an ambitious change we can only hope that Warhammer Online's revisions prove to be a good thing for the game as a whole.
Warhammer Online giving everyone a butcher's blessing
While the Night of Murder event has been pretty well received by the Warhammer Online crowd, there have been certain persistent issues with the event's mechanics. The staff extended the event slightly in order to try and ameliorate the problem, but it kept sticking around for some reason; one of those relentless bugs that avoids squishing no matter how resolutely you aim for it. The major sticking point? Butcher's Blessing, a substantial buff to both experience and renown accumulated. While not a game-breaking issue if unresolved, it was certainly obnoxious for anyone looking forward to the improved growth rates. As a result, the staff has apparently been all but swimming in tickets about the buff not applying or functioning correctly. So the development staff decided to go with the straightforward solution. For today and tomorrow, there will be a 30% buff to experience and renown gained for all characters, regardless of the blessing functioning or not functioning. That's a pretty substantial leap in gains, and it's high incentive for Warhammer Online players to hit the ground running. So go ahead, log in, and start enjoying the blessing of butchery on all of your characters.
Warhammer Online explains upcoming RvR weapons
It's always been a bit hard on Warhammer Online that up until now, RvR never netted you a viable weapon as a reward. There were reasons given, of course, but in order to get a decent weapon you had to take part in different activities. For a game where on of the major draws is PvP, it seems like a rather egregious oversight. Clearly, the developers ultimately agreed, hence the new Scenario rewards including RvR weapons in the upcoming patch 1.3.4. Item developer Sean Bosshardt put together a new developer diary to help explain the purchasing system, the philosophies in operation, and how the team dealt with balance concerns. The currency is balanced between Emblems and Insignias. Emblems are awarded for taking part in a scenario all along the leveling road; Insignias, on the other hand, are for the endgame and are restricted to players who have reached rank 40. They are also acquired from scenarios, as well as taking or defending a keep and the initial city public quest after attacking. The system will also apparently "unlock" higher levels of weaponry as the player purchases lower ranks, thus keeping a steady flow without skipping ahead. Warhammer Online players would do well to take a look at the full diary for more details, and get ready to start getting your due rewards for crushing skulls.
Warhammer Online reveals new Scenario structure
People were not happy with the first version of Warhammer Online's plan to streamline the game's Scenarios to create a better structure. They were so not happy, in fact, that Mythic Entertainment decided it was better form to pull their original plans, wipe the slate clean, and start over with a clearer picture. And it seems to have worked, as Andy Belford has announced the revised plan for the scenarios as a whole. The result is a slightly larger list, but one with a bit more variety between tiers and a clearer picture of what the development team wanted to accomplish. As the post explains, the biggest concerns for the scenarios was that they feel different from tier to tier, that each one be unique and interesting in its own right, and that each one can achieve critical mass easily enough that neither faction feels completely helpless. Response to the announcement in the thread seems largely positive, with a wider range available at endgame and a careful re-distribution of what scenarios show up when. Warhammer Online players still have the opportunity to test this new environment on the test servers, and in all likelihood it will be going live soon enough, which represents a definite effort at compromise from the developers.
No candy hearts in Warhammer Online
There will be no Ewok Love Festival in Warhammer Online, and not simply due to the lack of Ewoks. If you're feeling a little fed up with everyone taking this time of year to put down whatever sharp implements they're holding in the spirit of giving out gift baskets and looking bashful? That's what the Night of Murder is all about. From February 9th to the 16th, the Night of Murder event will be taking place, wrapping the world in a haze of bloodlust and death, with the will of the elven god Kaela Mensha Khaine spurring on the fierce rage and love of battle on both sides of the conflict. Order and Chaos alike will be rewarded with the chance to mount the heads of their enemies on pikes, and certain players on both sides will periodically be marked for death as a part of the "festivities." Warhammer Online has never shied away from the darker aspects of its setting, and this event seems to still walk in that direction. Whatever your opinion on recent news and developments regarding the game, this version of the holiday is certainly a nice change from futzing about to get a heart-shaped wand.
