Warhammer Online – Dev Chatlog

If you follow Warhammer Online you had probably seen the announcement that there was going to be a Dev Chat tonight on MMORPG.com.  I didn’t get to attend it, but was reading through the chatlog posted by Garthilk at Warhammer Alliance.  Let me say that I didn’t see any real new information, but I thought I might comment on a few of the answers they did give.

Have you planned a system to balance Order/Destruction ratio on a given server? 

Josh: Ah, balance. One of the ways you cope with (inevitable) population imbalances is to recognize that you can’t avoid them. And then plan around that. We’ve done that from the beginning, especially in RvR areas. One of the main reasons we chose to do instanced, controllable scenarios was to help mitigate the impact of that imbalance on any given server. So an underpopulated realm will always have a good chance at defending and attacking in RvR due to the balancing that scenarios can offer.

This does actually make me feel a bit better about the heavy emphasis they’ve placed on instanced RvR scenarios.  If you’ve followed my Warhammer commentary, you know I’m a big fan of DAoC’s open, world RvR.  I know War will have this as well (it’s one of the “focus areas” during the beta shutdown), but you hear MUCH more about the instanced RvR.  If at least part of the reason for this is to keep some semblance of realm balance, that’s a plus. 

When DAoC came out, and for some time afterward, there was a feeling of realm pride.  That slowly faded as time went on and people starting hopping between realms.  This realm pride thing was one of my favorite “features” of DAoC and I want to know what you are doing to foster this, if anything at all.

Josh: “Alt-itis” is hard to avoid. And, to be honest, not necessarily a bad thing in all cases.  But one of the major ways we intend to foster that sense of pride and place and belonging is via the guild system. That said, we certainly hope people try lots of things out in-game. Since… well… we love the whole thing and want people to see what we’ve been building.

So essentially, any notion of trying to have realm pride and keep a community cohesive just doesn’t seem to be a big concern.  Of course if you are in a guild that’s going to be a major anchor point for you.  And the War devs have stated that guilds will be a big deal in War and they plan to have a lot of good features to foster guild activity and achievements.  But there is something about knowing the players and guilds on YOUR server, and having that community over time where people get to know each other.  Rivalries develop, epic battles are wages, stories are told.  Each server develops it’s own history and culture.  That gets lost with server hopping (to a lesser degree), and with any kind of ”cross-realm” mechanic.  I’d much rather go up against players on my server, in my community, than random player #3256 from server #45.  I understand people don’t want to sit and wait to RvR – but I’d hold off and wait to implement cross-server mechanics IF it ever became a problem – not from the outset as a core feature.

One of the big motivating factors in DAoC was that one group of well played characters was able to kill 30+ players at once if they knew what they were doing.  Do you have such things in mind when developing WAR?  Is skill as important in WAR as it was in DAoC?

Gersh: WAR is a bit diffrent from DAOC in terms of quantity of players a really good group can take down. In general we’re limiting AoE type abilities and playing with the style of them. In general outside of morale you won’t be able to hit more then 9 or so targts. In alot of cases we’ve done diffrent types of ranges and AoE shapes, Cone AoEs, Long Line AoEs, Hits 2 + nearby targets etc. So in WAR a well planned group could roll through a number of opponents. But they won’t Be able to roll up and Mez 30 people then nuke them all down Ala DAOC.

Some of my best memories of DAoC RvR really come down to two categories – my guild sieging a fortress/castle and being in a top notch group that knew what the heck they were doing.  The group vs. group battles were probably the most exhilarating RvR I experienced in DAoC, and I look forward to that aspect in WAR.  Everyone knew their role and knew the drill, the places to hide and where to ambush.  When to go for the kill and when to retreat to circle around.  Man that was fun stuff!  And yes, let me state that is was very fun to just mow people down before they knew what hit them.  However, on the flip side, I had PLENTY of experience being part of a big group of Albs that stood mass rooted/mezzed while we were taken down at leisure.  Now that tops my charts for moments that sucked in an MMO.  So I’m glad they’ve done away with some of the mass abilities, or at least narrowed their scope.  But it sounds like a good group can still tear it up and do a lot of damage if they play together a lot and know their stuff.  Anyone want to go ahead and form a pre-made? 

Will there be something similar to most other MMOs in the category of mounts?

Gersh: WAR will have mounts as a form of transportation, just like many other MMO’s. That said mounts will be player owned. In addition we have a stack of additional neat features in store for player mounts.

I’m glad there will be player owned mounts, I just hope they take a page from Vanguard’s playbook on this one.  VG, imo, is the MMO that’s done the best job with mounts so far, bar none.  In VG, you can purchase your first mount at level 10 which is very nice.  Not only that, but FINALLY we’re allowed to outfit our mount – you can purchase barding, tack, saddlebags and horseshoes, all of which have an impact on the stats and carrying capacity of your mount.  To me this is a no brainer – if you are going to do mounts, you need to do all of that and more.  I think the mount mechanic (jokes welcome) can be greatly expanded on – I think the surface has barely been scratched.  We still need to see someone do mounted combat well.

Will pvp skill add to the amount of exp you get from a player?  i.e. if a player is a very good pvper, will they be worth more exp when killed?

Josh: Yep. Players who have been run through a meat grinder and killed recently and/or repeatedly will be worth less renown than players who’ve been up and fighting for a long time.

This is another good feature and one that I found enjoyable in DAoC.  It was nice to take down a known, uber pvp person (going back to that server community thing) in RvR and see that big number of realm points come rolling in.  On the flipside, it was nice knowing that you probably weren’t going to be bothered much if you’d just been ganked a couple of times.  People would let you go sometimes knowing you wouldn’t be worth very much.

Are there any plans for a limited or collector’s edition of the game to be released?

Josh: Oh, will there EVER be. Obviously, no details just yet, but I recommend that you start lifting weights now. The list of stuff Marketing is trying to cram in is absurd. And awesome. It’ll be very limited edition, so make sure to pre-order ASAP once it’s announced.

James: We’re really excited and can’t wait to share the details. And Josh isn’t exagerating. It’s the Mary Poppins Bag of Special Editions.

O.k. that sounds awesome without actually having been told anything substantial hehe.  I wonder how limited this edition will be.  I may just have to get me one of those.