As the series rolls along, issue 5 is now out and has hit the Herald.  And for the first time, I didn’t really read anything that I didn’t already seem to know (or at least assumed would be the case).  So I’m a bit disappointed, but I know the team must be focused much more on re-opening the beta than providing lots of nuggets via these updates at the moment.  And I know there are a lot of details they don’t want to reveal until later, so by the fifth one of these, they might be hurting for material.

Here’s the basic nutshell:

*  Very brief blurb on and two art shots of cities

*   UI Team – Character creation is finally in the game – people will have choices – looking unique is good

*  RvR – People had questions on our beta boards about keeps – essentially like DAoC keeps (from what they are willing to tell you in this update)

*  Career Mastery – People had (more) questions on our beta boards about this – and you basically learn nothing you didn’t already know.

So despite the fact that this was probably the most “ho hum” beta update released to date, there were at least a couple of things that caught my eye when I read through it.

Before I dive into that, there is one other change to RvR. We have changed the Renown splitting from its old contribution based system. Renown for killing players is now awarded to each member of a group if one or more members participated in the kill. The amount of renown given to the group is a percentage based on participation in the kill.

I don’t really have the proper context to understand this statement or what this type of changes means, having never been in beta to observe the old system.  When they say “contribution” based, I’m assuming that means that if I did 50% of the damage to an enemy that died, I got 50% of the renown value of that enemy.  So it sounds like it was a very individual accomplishment.  The new system sounds like, regardless of whether you damage the enemy or not, as long as someone in your group does, you will get some % of the renown for the kill.  This could potentially be a HUGE change depending on how these systems work, and could certainly influence a person’s choice of career.  If your renown gain is based on how much you personally do to an enemy, that might slant you a certain direction.  If you can gain renown in a group, regardless of how much you personally do (but rather, as an entire group), this might slant you in other directions.  So although I can’t say that I understand this statement as written, I would certainly like to see more information on this particular subject in the next update as it will determine how people RvR and progress up through the ranks.

 The C&C team is actually making strong efforts to avoid “CC Mastery”. Crowd control is a powerful, necessary, and key part of gameplay, but it’s also very delicate – if you’re unable to control your character for an entire fight, that’s horribly frustrating and simply not fun.

We already knew this and I’ve quoted WAR devs a couple of other times making similar statements, but I just can’t help but highlight this every time I see it.  A no brainer really, but good to see them reiterate it just the same.

And that’s really it, much to my dismay.  I was excited to see another update and then as I read through there wasn’t a lot “new” to really sink my teeth into.  Mainly clarifications to people based on information they’ve released the last few weeks.  Oh well – here’s to update 6 being better!

As seen over at Keen and Graev.

The EA Mythic community team now has a new member – Robert Mull – a former brand guru at WotC.  This is exciting news for the Warhammer community to know that there is someone finally at the head of the community relations ship after the departure of longtime WAR community manager Richard Duffek.  Not that James has been doing a bad job – far from it.  But I think from a continuity and planning standpoint, a leader for the team was needed.  So here’s a bit of the announcement and then a few of my thoughts:

Greetings All, 

I’m Robert Mull, the new Community Relations Director for EA Mythic.  I oversee the work our team of Community Coordinators do for Warhammer Online (James Nichols), Dark Age of Camelot (Missy Hatch and Joanne Laroche) and Ultima Online (Jeremy Dalberg).  They are a great team and I am lucky to have inherited them. 

As a gamer who got his start in MMOs with the Ultima Online beta, being allowed to support the same community that made that game so enjoyable to me is a real pleasure and I feel like I have come full circle.  Since then a decade has passed and I have played countless MMOs.  A few of these became part of my daily routine for years as I worked to found guilds, build cities, run player-events, engage in pvp conflicts, roleplay, and be an active member of the gaming community.  While the games have changed over the years, the real draw for me has always been the people.  A strong well-supported community makes good games great.

Prior to coming to EA Mythic, I worked at Wizards of the Coast supporting brands such as Avalon Hill, Axis & Allies, Dreamblade, Duel Masters and other products.  I learned many lessons there that I have brought with me to EA Mythic, but first and foremost is that you have to be honest and open with your community. 

In the coming months you will be hearing much more from me.  I want to continue and extend the reputation EA Mythic has built for integrity, honesty and quality in community and customer support. Our job here is to be the voice of the community inside EA Mythic and the voice of the people working hard at EA Mythic to the community.  The Community Relations team is a feedback loop and our goal is making the community better, day by day.  I, for one, take that job very seriously and enjoy it immensely. 

I look forward to talking to you all on the boards and at Road Trips, conventions and other public events.-

Bob

1.  Obviously Bob is overseeing the entire Community team for EA Mythic which I’m sure is a huge job.  As Keen notes in his comments, you have to wonder what role Bob will have in the Warhammer community specifically.  Will a “middle manager” role be filled, or will it essentially be James running the show under Bob’s guidance?  I would assume (I know, I know…) that a larger percentage of Bob’s time would be dedicated to the WAR community given that it’s the flagship product coming down the pipeline.  There will be a lot of communication and community building to be done pre-launch and in the weeks and months following.  DAoC already has two coordinators as opposed to one for WAR, and it’s community is pretty well established.  Same for UO which is even older and I suspect doesn’t need near the community TLC that WAR will demand pre and post launch.

2.  I’m glad to know just a bit about his gaming background.  To know that he’s been around the genre and actively playing games online for as long as I have is comforting in a way.  He’s essentially like most of us – a gamer at heart who has been actively involved in various roles over the years in MMOs.  And as a guy whose work focuses on people all day every day, and does a lot of communicating as part of that, I can appreciate the fact that he loves the people aspect of the genre.  You have to if you are going to be the main mouthpiece and focal point for EA Mythic not just for Warhammer, but all of the communities in their stable.

3.  WotC and “open and honest”.  In a way I’m glad Bob’s got a background from WotC.  That company has put out a lot of creative and awesome games over the years.  The most recent one to get me addicted was Dreamblade coming off the 2006 GenCon (sadly it only survived for the year).  What I will say is that WotC are gurus at Marketing and branding their stuff, and they have some pretty great community tools in place via the web.  They also show up on force at the various Cons each year.  With Bob having worked on the Dreamblade brand along with Axis and Allies (a long-time favorite), I have high hopes that he can leverage that experience here with an IP that’s certainly deserving.  As far as being “open and honest” – I absolutely hope so.  I think the WAR community will demand it and I frankly think it’s the only way a community person would ever succeed – don’t BS your fanbase.

I think that overall this announcement is a great thing and the tone of what Bob has written here gives me hope that the guy not only knows what he’s doing but is passionate and connected to the material he’s dealing with.  Welcome and I look forward to hearing more about what the WAR community team will do via the Herald and the fansites.

Looking forward to the Warhammer beta re-opening?  Me too!  Well, we have just a sliver of info on the subject today from the mouth of James Nichols, Community Coordinator for WAR:

Never fear!

I’ll be making a post on the Herald each time we send out a batch of invites. We haven’t yet and won’t until beta has had a little bit of time to get back into the swing of things…need to make sure everything is hunkey-dorey before we open the gates

I know you’re all excited, I am too! But don’t lose sleep just yet

If you’re invited to join the beta an email will be sent to the address used to register on the beta forums, however, we cannot guarantee that it will not be blocked by spam filters so keep an eye open for my Herald posts!

Thanks all, see you soon

__________________
James Nichols
Community Coordinator
Warhammer: Age of Reckoning

So the long and short of it, if you don’t see something posted on the Herald, no invites have gone out.  But if you’re like me, you’re already checking your inbox daily just in case.

So by my count (thanks Wordpress!) this is my 33rd post regarding Warhammer Online in the last four months – so about eight per month on average.  Overboard?  Maybe.  Fanboi?  Possibly.  Believer in Mythic due to what I know and love about DAoC?  Absolutely.  Which is why I could probably post the following from today’s November newsletter and call it good so I can start doing my beta dance:

We’re almost ready to re-open the WAR Beta…

But c’mon, where’s the fun in that?  Today the November newsletter hit email boxes everywhere.  After taking some time to read through it and listen to Drescher’s podcast, I can tell you it does have some great info in store for you whether you’ve been keeping up with Warhammer news or not.  As always, there’s a lot more content there than what I will discuss here (including some great screenshots and concept art), so check it out in its entirety.

This is not your Grandma’s beta:  One of the first things that caught my attention was some news about how the WAR beta will operate once it reopens (date plz!!).  Instead of continuing to have the beta servers up 24/7, Mythic is going in a different direction. 

We’ll be moving forward with a series of focused Beta events set around a specific concept or two. These events will last anywhere from 3-10 days and will enable us to gather specific, detailed feedback from our Beta Community in regards to specific features and locations. We’ll be bringing the server down between each event for a day or two in order to prepare for the next focused event. This will also give us time to process the feedback we receive and incorporate it in future events.

That sounds like a fairly smart process.  Get your players to test very specifc mechanics and systems for a defined period of time, gather that data and feedback, analyze it, etc.  This is a way for them to efficiently steamline the beta process in a way that will help them quickly get very targeted data on what they want to test.  I do hope that at some point the beta will be open again 24/7, because I think there also needs to be that “reality” of people playing at all hours and across all systems to test the unknown.  All the focused tests could go well, but then when everything and everyone is thrown together again there may be new bugs and issues that come up.  So there still needs to be time to deal with those unknown issues.

Open World RvR, Keeps, Mastery System, oh my!:  Not going to rehash all of this here as it was in the Beta Update 4, but if you read that you know I’m obviously very excited about the changes and I think most other people will be too.  In this month’s podcast, the Mastery section is o.k. but it’s nice to see Josh talk about reacting to beta tester feedback regarding open world RvR.  In the podcast, he says that beta testers thought the scenarios were fun (and I do think they have a place in the game), but that they felt open world RvR was lacking.  I’m so glad Mythic listened and is going to leverage their expertise in that area by adding in all the cool systems that frankly I was expecting WAR to provide from the get go.  Does this mean it’s Dark Age of Warhammer now?  I don’t think so.  I think the two games have enough differences to be very distinct (25 years of Warhammer lore anyone?), but they now share in common some of the most critical features that I think WAR really needs to appeal longer term.

Mounts!:  Yes, Warhammer isn’t going to make you walk everywhere, there will be mounts to ride and now we’ve seen some actual pictures.  Finally a game where we can ride an armored War-Boar.  And an “ale powered” mount for Dwarves – how cool is that?  The pictures look really cool, although there is no information on who these mounts will be attained.  From the pictures you can see that there will  be different tiers of mounts which presumably will cost more and will provide greater speed benefits.  I wonder if mounts will need to be purchased with not only currency, but maybe with a certain threshold of renown (akin to the way EQ2 makes you have a certain amount of status to acquire certain high level mounts)?  There is also a statement that lower level players will have access to “rental” mounts – will these be fixed horse routes ala DAoC, or will these be timed rentals where you have a low level mount for 10 minutes for a certain fee?

In future newsletters we will dive deeper into the mounts in WAR, including specifics on where you and you’re mount can travel and customization options your high level mounts!

So obviously a lot more detail to come on this subject and it will be interesting to see what type of mount customization.  Anyone know if Warhammer lore provides for flying mounts of any kind??

The Tome of Knowledge Pwns.  There is a terrific article on the ToK in this month’s newsletter.  Fantastic read that really gives you insight into not only what the purpose of the Tome is and how it will accomplish that purpose, but also the “behind the scenes” methodology Mythic has followed to actually create this great game system.  I’ll go on record right now and say this is one of the most exciting things about WAR, and by far the best system I’ve seen in MMOs for keeping track of all the accomplishments of your character.

Some of the information in the Tome is tracked by keeping a record, literally with numbers, of the things that you’re doing in the game. Let’s take for example, killing monsters. The Tome of Knowledge tracks every monster that you kill, ever. It doesn’t matter if you’re paying attention to the Tome or not, it’s going to keep track of it. And in all cases, you’re going to get a reward for doing it.

But on top of achieving kill thresholds (1, 10, 100 of specific monster kills, for example), the Tome tracks and challenges you to come up with other ways to interface with monsters. Say you’re walking through an area and you’re killing basilisks. There’s a chance that maybe one of them drops an item, a backpack belonging to a Dwarf back in town. You may notice the name and recognize it, or you may sell it as junk loot and get a few copper for it. But say you recall the reference, and take the backpack back to its owner. Well, then you’ve accomplished a special task for being so observant, and the Tome is going to reward you for it.

And we don’t just track this for monster kills, but for everything in the game: doing quests, interacting with objects, finding areas, etc. We even comment on the way in which you play the game, so there are Tome unlocks for perhaps the duration of your play (whether it’s a positive or negative reflection on you ), or the things that you do at the keyboard. There is no system that the Tome doesn’t touch.

I’m really looking forward to not only all the statistical info that you’ll have tracked about your character, but especially to the humor and the spontaneous achievements you will unlock as you just naturally play the game.  If they can get the sharing aspect of this down correctly (which I believe they said they want to have in-game), then it will be a huge hit I think.  How interesting would it be to allow public access to your Tome, and be able to “inspect” others and see what sorts of stats they have, what they’ve killed and conquered, and where they’ve been in the game.  Again, I think this will be on of WAR’s most unique and coolest features, hands down.

I wish everyone the best of luck getting into the beta when it reopens in December, and may the Waaagh!!! be with you.

I’ll be the first to admit that for years I was an anti-pvp kind of person.  I didn’t want to be around it, much less participate in it.  And then came DAoC.  That game was the first to present pvp to me in a way that made sense, and I appreciated being able to “opt in” if I so chose.  The “realm vs. realm” combat that Mythic envisioned for that game won over a lot of people (including yours truly), and I believe brought a lot of people into the pvp fold that would otherwise never have tried it.

Fast forward several years.  We’ve seen PvP in WoW now for three years, and unless you’ve been under a rock you understand how pvp has evolved in that game and what the battlegrounds and arenas are like.  WoW PvP has been accused of being so heavily gear focused that it’s almost become a joke.  You outgear your opponents by having top end raid gear, and you are almost guaranteed a victory (unless you have horrible teamwork and just play the battleground poorly).  Player skill seemed to be absent from the equation, except in rare circumstances where you would pull off an “upset” win over uber-geared opponents.  When the arenas hit, they offered the chance for people to get equivalent level gear to raiding.  So in some sense it kind of evened the field, but it was still heavily gear dependant (and you have to dump a lot of hours into arena play to get the gear in the first place).  Of course we know that WoW, like so many of our beloved MMOs, is heavily gear based so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this aspect colored the pvp design as well.

Enter Warhammer.  Their entire game will be based around realm vs. realm in a way that DAoC never envisioned.  From questing to leveling to duking it out with your mortal enemies, their mantra is “War is Everywhere”.   So how is Mythic going to tackle this problem of pvp balance, or will they?  Will gear reign supreme as it seems to in every other MMO?  Well, the WAR team recently took some time to address a few questions over at Ten Ton Hammer aimed specifically at pvp balance.  I’m pleased to say that they seem to be headed in the right direction (imo).

The devs have stated before that while of course gear will play some role, it (supposedly) won’t be the dominant or overwhelming force in how well you can do in RvR.  Your success will hinge much more on your ability to manage your tactics and morale abilities, utilizing them at the best moments for maximum effect.  Of course other staples such as good teamwork, efficient communication, familiarity with the terrain, etc. will all come into play as well.  But there seems to be much less of an emphasis on gear in this realm vs. realm model, at least if you believe what Mythic is telling us.  I think this is a good thing as most of us want to feel like we have a fighting chance to win, although it may be hard fought and bloody.  I’d rather fight close battles all day long than just steamroll (or be steamrolled).  I think it’s much more satisfying and fun to actually “achieve” a win rather than just sleepwalk to victory.

Besides gear vs. player skill, the other balance issue that comes up has to do with ranged (with crowd control) vs. melee.  In DAoC, it could be a complete nightmare at times with ranged classes casting all sorts of crowd control or movement inhibiting spells on your character.  Before you even saw the enemy at times, you were already dead.  The classic “Root, Nuke, Nuke, Dead” was definitely in play.  It was frustrating for melee classes because they felt like they never got to close the gap – never had the chance to get in close because they were immobilzed or dead so quickly.  WAR devs have already said that crowd control abilities will be limited in their scope and use, so that’s a great first step.  But will ranged classed still have a huge advantage over melee, able to rain death and destruction from afar before your melee character can close the distance (empahasis mine):

Overall, in an attempt to keep the parity between close range & long range in general, we have to be very careful with how we allow players to control or manipulate other player’s movement. Long range classes just don’t get the ability to lock an opponent at long range. Yes, they can slow their advance, but they really can’t immobilize them until they get into close range (so they can attempt to escape). Even then they have to be careful because those types of Crowd Control have long reuse timers and diminishing returns on effectiveness. Use it on one charging tank and you may find that you are run down by the next one.

The same holds true for close range careers; expend you’re abilities to get into melee range quickly and you may find those tools unavailable to you later. In the end it’s the same with everything, play the game, take feedback, adjust, rinse, and repeat.

I wouldn’t want to the job of trying to achieve “balance” in an MMO, particularly when it comes to PvP.  However, from everything I’ve read so far, it appears that the WAR devs are taking the issue of balance very seriously and are really testing it to ensure that it’s as fun as possible for all players.  And they should, given that it’s the core foundational system of their game.  By emphasizing player skills, strategic use of abilities, and downplaying the role of crowd control in realm vs. realm, I think they have a winning formula that will draw in MMO newbies and veterans alike.

A couple of days ago staff writer Carolyn Koh at MMORPG.com had the opportunity to sit down with Brian Wheeler, one of the designers of Warhammer Online.  Most of the brief interview covered points that those following the game will have already heard.  However, toward the end she mentions that she was given an inside look at how city sieges will work, and was allowed to make some general comments about that process:

I was also given an in-depth example by Mythic of how the city siege component of the game currently works. I was reminded that the game has not launched and it would be misleading to make any claims of 100% certainty at this point in time.

In this case, the Armies of Destruction are attacking the Empire capital city of Altdorf…

• When the Tier 4 zone of Reikland falls, the city of Altdorf becomes “attack eligible”
• Destruction can then enter the Outer City, which is an RvR zone, to fight against players of Order and capture control objectives.
• Players on both sides will respawn in the Outer City until the battle is won or lost.
• If Destruction wins, the Outer City closes and they advance to the Inner City to fight NPCs and other Order player that may have survived the initial battle.
• Order players still in the Inner City will not be able to respawn once killed.
• Destruction will then have several hours of uninterrupted time to loot, pillage, quest, fight the king, etc.
• After this period of time has ended, the Outer City will re-open for RvR combat and the forces of Order may attempt to retake this area
• Should Order succeed, they can then enter the Inner City to clear out the forces of Destruction (who will no longer respawn in this area once killed)
• The city will then revert to its original state of peace.

Please note that the city siege itself will be population limited (size to be determined) and could play out over several different instances.

I thought this sounded like a pretty solid way to handle the city siege, but the last statement (bold mine) was news to me.  I’m just wondering how a city siege would work with population limited instances.  In other words, could there be 5 distinct instances of Altdorf’s outer city under attack at one time?  If so, what happens if Destruction wins in three of those fights, and Order wins the other two?  Does each instance progress separately, or does the game take the whole of all instance outcomes into account and declare one winner and one loser, then opens the inner city?  What if four of those battles were decided relatively quickly, while one took two hours – I don’t think you’d want the players in the other four instances waiting around.  They’d almost have to be independent of each other.

Or, perhaps once the outer city is taken in even one of the instances, the game considers the outer city lost and moves everyone directly into the inner city instance?   That would speed things up and keep everyone “together” in a way, even if you are participating in different instances.  I’m assuming that once the city is won, all victors would then be in just one instance of the captured city and be ready to loot, burn, and capture the king.  Hrm…  Well, something to ponder and if any of you have seen any other clarifying info on this, let me know.