Warhammer Online: EA Mythic Conference Call Reveals Tons of New Info!
Hey all, we have a pretty cool update for you this evening. This past Thursday EA Mythic hosted a conference call for all the news sites out there covering WAR, and our own intrepid adventurer GUITAR got on the horn to get you all the scoop.
From what guitar told me, it was a wild, chaotic, and deafening experience, with the ever-enthusiastic Paul Barnett causing him to to lose the power of hearing in one ear. Also on hand with all kinds of top secret info were Jeff Hickman, Josh Drescher, Steve Perkins, and Lance Robertson.
All kinds of information on topics ranging from RvR to character careers to armor customization and mounts were discussed... and more!
The conference covered a wide variety of topics, and as we would expect from this team they were jumping from topic to topic like a squig on crack. Paul started out describing the races of Empire and Chaos and the character careers, but from there it descended into anarchy. Since we could not record the call or take word-for-word notes, I decided to collect the pertinent information into easily digestible sections. Please chew carefully...
Realm vs. Realm
Of course, let's start with RvR. I never did believe in saving the best for last, and we learned a lot of new information on RvR from this conference call, where some persistent questions were laid to rest.
One of the big questions on everyone's mind has been: how does EA Mythic plan to balance the benefits of instanced and "open-world" PvP? The information coming about how scenarios (instanced) would be worth more points in the battlefront (see the video Josh Drescher narrated recently) had a lot of PvPers concerned that we would see a repeat of the instance plague that watered down WoW's PvP.
Fear not: EA Mythic expects the Battlegrounds (open-world RvR objectives) to be some of the most chaotic and dynamic PvP in the game, being lost and won by either side all the time. While Scenarios will grant more points than Battlegrounds, there will be definite "benefits" to controlling Battlegrounds for your Realm, and it was definitely suggested that controlling Battlegrounds will be necessary to conquer zones for your side. So in short, both will be fun, and both will contribute to their war effort in their own way.
To elaborate on the conquest of Battlegrounds and zones, a question was posed that will probably make sense to the DAoC players: will we be able to conquer objectives for our guild? While this does sound cool, at this point EA Mythic is saying no, but that you will be able to conquer objectives for your realm - whether this would include physical changes to show ownership is unknown, but we can probably assume that something of this nature will be involved. As for conquering zones, there will definitely be physical signals of which realm controls a zone - Chaos will be especially noticeable, since the sky will apparently be filled by a giant spinning vortex when they take over!
Whether you are a huge fan of instanced PvP or not, you have to be excited about the fact that there will be 40+ Scenarios at launch, giving a much wider variety of content than the competition. Paul briefly outlined a couple of the scenarios found in the Empire vs. Chaos Battlefront. The first he went over was the Northern Fortress, which sounds a bit like "attack and defend" - one side has to disembark from boats and fight their way up through a ruin, into a stone-strewn field and up to a huge fortress. More details will be released soon, I assume. The second one was a bit less detailed, but we gather that "66 Hellcannons" is going to involve fighting in a ruin that is being shelled by Hellcannons and trying to stay alive while huge explosions are going on all around. Sounds pretty sweet to me.
They also clarified a question on collision. There will definitely be collision in RvR, so that characters can block each other, and guard their squishy cloth-wearing friends from attack. No more ignoring tanks and going straight to the healer! However, ranged attacks will not be blocked by player collision, including both magic and arrow attacks.
Player vs. Environment
We did learn a couple of new things about the PvE in WAR. Previously, we had heard that questing was going to be divided up into a few different "types". These were:
warhammeronline.com:
- Public quests that benefit from the participation of the entire army
- Conflict quests that pit players against an enemy with opposing goals
- Branching quests that let you choose the outcome of the quest and your reward
- Xmas quests that reward exploration with high value loot
While all of these are still in, EA Mythic made it clear during this conference that the emphasis was going to be placed on the public quests. For more information on Public Quests, check out lepidus' preview here.
The team also discussed loot distribution and how it would work. They said that there are actually 5 or 6 different ways of getting loot in WAR. There will be random drops from mobs and players, as well as more planned-out systems like the influence rewards from Public Quests, in which you build up influence over time to claim rewards of your choice in varying tiers. Loot can also be gained by sacking enemy cities and stealing all their stuff!
As far as bosses go - we will definitely be seeing figureheads of the Warhammer IP in-game. We will be seeing all kinds of famous faces, from Teclis to Malekith to Karl Franz, and apparently defeating these guys will gain you some kind of "hero" status in the game, with genuinely impressive fame resulting from that. Now where is my "Skullbreaker, Black Orc Warboss" miniature?
It was also mentioned that there are definitely going to be areas in-game designed as roleplay hotspots. What form these will take was not described, but it was made clear that the game is trying to capture the real spirit of Warhammer, and will include all kinds of places and things from the IP that the lore buffs will go nuts for.
Character Careers
Since all the Chaos and Empire careers were only recently released, and described in pretty general terms, everyone was itching to know more about them. We got to know some interesting tidbits about a few of the newly released careers. The EA Mythic team said that choosing the careers for each race was extremely difficult. With all the lore they had to pore through, and all the help they got from Games Workshop, Paul says they've got enough material for expansions to last ten years.
A few general clarifications about Chaos and the Empire: even though they are both humans, players will not be able to switch back and forth between the two. While humans turning to Chaos is a big part of Warhammer, this would probably be too hard to do in terms of gameplay, and raise all kinds of problems. Concerning Chaos, they made it clear that the abilities and quests for Chaos players would definitely reflect the full spectrum of the Chaos experience - not just randomly murdering people. Chaos players will definitely have to "Chaosize" things around them as they progress through the game. How this will be done is still not clear. Personally, I'm pulling for a "Plant an Eyeball Tree Day" to help save the environment.
The first thing everyone wanted to know about the Witch Hunter was: when can we get the hat? The team said that Witch Hunters will not start with a badass hat, but will get it pretty quickly - the hat is definitely a big part of the Witch Hunter's look, and will progress along with the character, getting cooler and cooler as you get new hats. Less importantly, we learned about the Witch Hunter's signature ability - the Torment skill. How this works is that over time, as the Witch Hunter deals damage to a target, they build up something called "Confession" in the target. Once this reaches a certain level, the target will "Confess" and the Witch Hunter along with another player can deal some kind of extra damage. I'm not really sure what my Orc has to confess... that he loves cookies, perhaps, or something similarly damning.
The Zealot was another class we learned about. Apparently this guy is a total psycho who runs around dressed in feathers, throwing potions and lotions and skulls and stabbing people with daggers. He is also, appropriately, the healer class for Chaos.
But the class that everyone seemed to want to know about was the Chaos Magus. Since we learned that he will be riding a Disk of Tzeentch at all times, people have been buzzing about this class. The EA Mythic team went more in-depth about the Magus, and especially about the Disk! The Disk is basically a flat, flying Chaos shark, with lots of eyeballs and teeth and tentacles. It is a nasty, mean Chaos demon, and as such it will have its own abilities, and play a role in combat with its own attacks. It will change and develop over time along with the character.
A Magus will ALWAYS be on his Disk. He never gets off it, even to use the bathroom. Disks will be rideable everywhere, including over water, which means that Magi will have an automatic water-walking ability. And as far as mounts go for the Magus, the Disk will be his mount - how this will be balanced with other mounts was not discussed. Also, Chaos Magi will not be able to summon pets - but there will be other pet classes besides the Squig Herder!
A bit of information for casters in general: there will be "instant" cast spells, but most magic will require concentration and will not be castable on the run.
Characters and Customization
Regarding character customization, the EA Mythic team once again reiterated that they are committed to each race having a manner in which their characters change to reflect increase in power over time. Empire, sadly, only gets nicer gear as they level. They aren't ready to commit to any details regarding how Chaos will change, but it seems likely that Chaos players have some kind of mutations to look forward to - at least, they didn't deny the possibility. The Marauder definitely mutates, but his are temporary.
The team once again stood by their commitment to offer tons of customization, saying that if 15 players of the same race, career, and level were to stand together, none would look alike. A big part of this is the customizable trophies that characters will be able to wear As far as trophies for Empire and Chaos go, they mentioned the possibility of skulls and bits of armor - although this seems more Chaos-oriented. Personally, I want to see customizable Sigmar memorabilia all over the humies I smash. You listening, Mythic?
Another fun mention is that there will be lots of fun emotes in the game - burps, farts, and some apparently harsh mocking intended for the enemy faction to hear and get pissed off at. There will be no dancing, but there will be a WAAAGH! emote for Orcs. This pleases me greatly.
Et Cetera
There were also lots of questions that just didn't fit into a category I could think up, so here is a random list of facts we learned thanks to this fun event:
There will be no death penalty in PvE or RvR, except for a run back from the "warcamp", which seems to replace the "graveyard" concept. From the language used it seems like there will be no corpse runs or running around as a ghost. However, the tradeoff for this is that you should expect to get killed a lot in WAR!
The environment will be fully functional and usable in PvE and RvR. This means damage from falling, lava, cannonballs, and lots of ways to use terrain to your advantage.
Transportation will come in many forms, from standard player mounts, to "public transportation" (Orc buses is da best buses!), to straight-line types of transport (think static mounts in DAoC, flight paths in WoW, or possibly an Orc catapult!). The big thing here is that Warhammer will not require you to visit a place by foot before you can take transportation there - someone mentioned that in real life you don't need to walk to New York to get a plane ticket and fly there. It seems that for now there is no teleportation planned.
A question came up about whether there will be NPC voiceovers like in EQ2. There will be short phrases said by NPC's as a way of greeting (or insulting) you, but there will be no drawn-out speeches by NPC's that take way longer than just reading the text.
What kind of methods will be used against EBaying? is a question I'm sure many MMO veterans would ask. They didn't give a lot of specifics, but it seems like they are trying to design the game in a manner that would make commercial farming overly difficult, and purchasing currency not worthwhile. Does this mean less of a gear grind? I hope so.
Multiple monitor support is not determined at this time.
They mentioned that there will be many servers, they will not be using a "big world" concept, but will find a happy medium between too big (unstable) and too small (posibbly referring to WoW?).
And, oh yeah, about beta: it'll be soon.
Hope this was informative! Discuss it in the forums, or die!