Warhammer - Xbox 360 + Squigs + Video Interview

[Arthur_Parker]

E3 Backstage Interview, Pet classes but not boring, Orbital Strikes etc (The 4 gameplay movies on that page are for the old cancelled Warhammer online)

IGN - PREVIEW

There are two Goblin classes here. The first, the Goblin Shaman offers the Greenskins their only outlet for magic use, while the Goblin Squig Herder serves as more of a pet-oriented class. Rather than taking on a more predictable route, the Squig Herder has a unique method of creating and controlling the ravenous balls of meat that are Warhammer's Squigs.

When the herder creates a Squig, the Squig is so ungrateful that he actually eats his master. From inside the Squig's stomach, the herder can now poke and prod the Squig's brain to control his actions. For the most part this will involve a lot of jumping around and biting things. There area few specialized Squigs however; the battle ball Squig will roll over its opponents American Gladiator style. Once a Squig is killed, he spits out the poor herder who is then free to carry on as usual.

Ten Ton Hammer - PREVIEW
Ten Ton Hammer - PREVIEW
Ten Ton Hammer - PHOTOS
Gamespy - PREVIEW

For example, we now know that Chaos will focus on the Chaos God Tzeentch, the so-called Changer of the Ways. This makes perfect sense as this God is focused on magic as well as melee combat, so it lends itself well in terms of gameplay. However, other demons will be in the game, such as Nurgle's Plaguebearers, as well as everything in Tzeentch's retinue, from Pink Horrors to Flamers.

The Escapist - PREVIEW
Gamespot - VIDEO PREVIEW
Gamespot - PREVIEW
Blue Alien - PREVIEW
GuComics - PREVIEW

The escapist preview is interesting because he wasn't that impressed.

Xbox Linky

E3 06: Age of Reckoning running on Xbox 360
MMO publisher shows off Warhammer Online behind closed doors--on Microsoft's next-gen console; 360 version not announced...yet?
By Justin Calvert, GameSpot

LOS ANGELES--Tucked away behind Sony's gigantic West Hall stand at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo is a Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning booth belonging to Mythic Entertainment. Visitors to the booth are being invited to get hands-on with the upcoming massively-multiplayer online game, where they can check out one of the game's areas on live servers and play alongside members of the development team who are playing from the company's Virginia headquarters.

What none of these players have realized, though, is that one of the "green-skins" questing alongside them is being controlled by a player not armed with a mouse and keyboard, but with a wireless Xbox 360 controller. That player is sat in a closely-guarded room to the rear of Mythic's booth.

To be clear, Mythic is not announcing an Xbox 360 version of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, but in what was purportedly a period of only six weeks, the developer has managed to get its game up and running on Microsoft's new console simply to prove that it can be done. Given the content of Bill Gates' "Live everywhere" speech at Microsoft's pre-E3 conference, it seems that Mythic's timing could hardly have been better. To quote one of Mythic's senior staffers, "What Microsoft is talking about, here is a company that's doing it."

We had an opportunity to see the PC and Xbox 360 versions of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning running alongside each other, and although the console demo lacked any kind of user interface, its widescreen high-definition visuals were practically indistinguishable from those on the PC. Furthermore, the character on the Xbox 360 was interacting with PC players, and if it weren't for the fact that one of the games was running on a huge TV rather than a monitor, it would be difficult to tell them apart.

Mythic says the work done optimizing Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning for the Xbox 360 made the development team realize that they could use similar techniques in the PC game. So what started out as an experiment to get an MMO game running on a console has actually resulted in some improvements for the PC version.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is currently scheduled for release on the PC in the fall of 2007. Whether or not the game will ever see a release on the Xbox 360 or any other console remains to be seen, but one thing is certain--it's definitely a possibility.

I don't see why they would waste time getting WAR to work on the 360 unless they were at least thinking about a 360 release.

[Trippy]

IGN - PREVIEW
When the herder creates a Squig, the Squig is so ungrateful that he actually eats his master. From inside the Squig's stomach, the herder can now poke and prod the Squig's brain to control his actions. For the most part this will involve a lot of jumping around and biting things. There area few specialized Squigs however; the battle ball Squig will roll over its opponents American Gladiator style. Once a Squig is killed, he spits out the poor herder who is then free to carry on as usual.

Okay that's a little different than how it works in the tabletop game (Mythic's version is sort of a herder/hopper hybrid) but I said in another thread that would be one of the classes I would like to play if it made it into the game so I'm definitely more interested now.

Gamespy - PREVIEW
For example, we now know that Chaos will focus on the Chaos God Tzeentch, the so-called Changer of the Ways. This makes perfect sense as this God is focused on magic as well as melee combat, so it lends itself well in terms of gameplay. However, other demons will be in the game, such as Nurgle's Plaguebearers, as well as everything in Tzeentch's retinue, from Pink Horrors to Flamers.

While I personally like Tzeentch I think Mythic just lost a ton of would be Chaos players who either wanted to scream "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD" any chance they got or wanted to play with their mostly nekkid Demonettes (though I guess those could still make it into the game).

[Arthur_Parker]

Gameplay video linky

Looks good so far, (from what you can see anyway).

German fan site video, right click save as

Video of the current character selection screen with 5 Dwarf and Gobbo characters highlighted in turn, also video of slides with text, copied below in-case link dies.

*Career System
4 Race-Specific Careers per Army
-each career is based on either Arms or Magic
-Each career is a recognised RvR archetype - Healer, Tanker, Melee DPS, Ranged DPS, etc
-Progress through 4 Tiers of 10 ranks each
*Purchase Skill Packages to Customise your Character
-Primary Career Skills
-Secondary Career Skills
-Specialisation Skills

Dwarf Careers
*Ironbreaker
-Arms/Tanker
*Hammerer
-Arms/Melee DPS
*Engineer
-Arms/Ranged DPS
*Rune Priest
-Magic/Healer

Greenskin Careers
*Warboss
-Arms/Tanker
*Shaman
-Magic/Healer
*Squig Herder
-Arms/Melee DPS
*Battler
-Arms/Ranged DPS

I'm not keen on 40 levels and I'm not keen on only 4 classes but the e3 interview I posted above with Paul Barnett was frothing at it's finest.

[Trippy]

Gameplay video linky

Looks good so far, (from what you can see anyway).

Can't really see much but it looks pretty "eh" to me -- i.e. nothing that differentiates it from WoW and other MMORPGs.

German fan site video, right click save as

Video of the current character selection screen with 5 Dwarf and Gobbo characters highlighted in turn, also video of slides with text, copied below in-case link dies.

Models look pretty good -- much better than the bland DAoC models circa SI-era (the only time I tried that game).

I'm not keen on 40 levels and I'm not keen on only 4 classes but the e3 interview I posted above with Paul Barnett was frothing at it's finest.

Those aren't really classes though but more like archetypes a la EQ2.

[Raguel]

LOL@ Pink Horrors and Flamers.

[eldaec]

I'm not keen on 40 levels

tbh I couldn't care less how many levels there are. It only really matters how many Spriggarns or Pirate-Zombie-Trees I have to squash to get them so I can hurry up and go RvR.

[Llava]

While we didn't get the FULL TREATMENT like these other articles, Yoru and I were both told that you could viably enter RvR "in 2-3 hours".  I believe he meant 2-3 hours after character creation, as that's what the context implied.  But I don't want to misquote- he lurks here.  He told us he lurks here. 

And pssssssshhhhhhh, he told us they weren't talking about professions yet.

[MythicJason]

Ok I lurk no more! Thought I would comment on the RvR real quick.

My apologies for not going into the professions more. Sounds like Mark, Jeff, and crazy man Paul went into more details in other demos/interviews.

In regards to RvR/Player Conflict yes the idea is to get people into the RvR scene right away. I would figure within 2 to 3 hours a player will have had enough time to explore a bit, do a few quests, and have a general idea of where to go for some RvR action. They may even have quests before that time that send them into RvR.

Now if you know where the RvR portion of the zone is already you could make a beeline for it right from the get go. Personally I wouldn't mind seeing a quest/NPC that sends you into RvR within the first few minutes of play, and have suggested it to the Content guys and gals before.

Back to lurking for now. Still recovering from E3 and this damn time zone change. Feet and brain feel like mush 

[eldaec]

Now, of course, in daoc nothing *stopped* you going rvr within minutes of popping into existence outside Camelot, you would of course be duly swatted like bug.

When the game came out the line was 'you'll proabbly be useful in rvr from lvl 20'. Hmmm.

[Modern Angel]

As a huge Tzeentch fanboy for 20 years I approve of this design direction.

[HRose]

I wish they had disclosed more how the game is structured.

Since the PvP and PvE now exist in the same zone I guess they'll have to hardlock who can access the zone or one level 40 player can go sit in the noob zone and break the game. In the case the zones are closed then it is more interesting to know how they are distributed and how many are reserved to the "endgame".

And even if they close the noob zone for levels 1 to 10 (for example) they'll still have to face the problem of maxed out characters. A skill based system could have fixed this, but they chose to go with the levels again.

I still don't understand how they'll make coexist the "battlefields" with the "scenarios". The whole structure of the game is just so unclear.

[Jimbo]

I quit DAoC because of the pve grind.  I wanted to go fight on an equal level not because someone has more time to sit and whack the same mole over and over more than me.

How are they going to be able to handle that?  I kinda wish it would something cool like if you aren't level 40, you get bumped up to level 40 when you go into pvp.  That and add some vehicles or hard mounted weapons where you could help defend or attach for your realm, would be really cool to be part of a siege engine or crossbow/gun  portion of something.

[schild]

I'm actually pretty ticked at myself for not stopping by the Mythic booth. I know Yoru and Llava did, but after 1 day of walking my brain had turned to mush.

Next year I'll be Much More Organized. To the point that hopefully I won't have to move but rather be carried around by buxom women. Or at least, that's the plan.

[kaid]

If you can make me a game with cracked out goblins poking giant fungus balls with teeth I will play it. I am so glad to see that squig herders made it for the greenskins.

[Nebu]

I'm actually pretty ticked at myself for not stopping by the Mythic booth. I know Yoru and Llava did, but after 1 day of walking my brain had turned to mush.

As like the only guy here still playing a Mythic product, I'm very disappointed in you!

[tazelbain]

I played DAoC until it was clear they weren't moving in my direction.  They seem to be moving in my direction again, so I am interested again.

[Arthur_Parker]

mmorpg.com preview

Mythic's Warhammer continues to grow and Garrett Fuller finds out more

Warhammer Online has only been in full scale development for eight months, but the excitement surrounding the game cannot be ignored. The people at Mythic showed us some of the combat system, quest, PvP elements and much more.

Much of what Mythic had to say was covered in our pre-E3 hands-on preview, but during our demo with the team, we caught a glimpse of a more focused scenario

Warhammer is a dark world with grim storylines, but most of all it does not take itself seriously and adds great humor to the game. With a strong IP on their hands, Mythic has the chance to create an MMO that will capture the brutal silliness of the tabletop game.

The greenskin racial pairing consists of Orcs and Goblins; or Gobbos to use the Warhammer lingo. Goblin players can be Shamans and Squig Herders, while the Orcs get to be Warbosses (name pending), a traditional heavy tank class; or Battlers, a damage dealing class that wears lighter armor and can carry two choppas. At this stage of development, Orcs can also be Shamans and Goblins can be Battlers, but all of this could change. If you know the lore, the fighting classes and shaman are not too hard to understand.

The Squig Herder is not nearly so simple. Tenatively, the plan is for the gobbo to be able to call forth squigs (imagine a horrifying Pac-Man with legs) to attack as a small group of chomping animals. A pet class. Simple, right? Not so much. At higher levels the plan is for the herder to summon a giant squig that will in turn eat the gobbo. Once inside the creature, your character grabs onto the squig’s innards and drives it around the battle field crushing and chomping your opponents. When your squig is finally killed you are belched forth back onto the field covered in guts. The developers described to us a wealth of different types of squigs. One rolls around crushing people, one breathes poison on the enemies, etc. The exact line-up is sure to expand over time, but as of E3, it remains totally in the realm of ideas. None of this had been implemented yet.

This may not be in the tabletop game yet, but it is a great use for the crazy Orcs and squigs. While there is no word on mounts, Mark Jacobs let everyone at their Wednesday party in on a secret: the Orc form of transportation from the video – which is to say by catapult – is a planned game feature.

The combat system in Warhammer starts at a very familiar base – Mythic’s revolutionary use of an action bar – and then expands into a three layered system. The hot bar is used for skills and attacks. It is a system known to gamers and easy to use. Mythic saw no reason to rock the boat. Instead, they added onto it.

Morale is the second tier of the combat system. Based on how active your character fights, casts spells and generally takes part in the action, the character’s morale bar – a semi-circle in the center-bottom of the UI – fills up. If you stop fighting, it recedes. As players gain more morale during combat, they can fire off special abilities. These moves are powerful, but eat all morale you had accumulated. This opens up a balancing act, as the moves are placed equally along the meter and get stronger the longer you wait. Should you use the first one as soon as you get to it or take the risk of going for a massive blow?

Players who stay out of the action and hide – while in a group involved in combat - will get some small morale for being alive, but nothing compared to those who actively fight. Currently Mythic has three morale abilities on the bar, but this is not set in stone and should be expanded over time. Personally, I already learned the value of these. When playing as an Orc, I was able to fire off my second ability. This ability healed me and turned the tide of a fight.

Besides morale abilities players can also use Tactics on their characters to enhance combat. Tactics are passive abilities which can be chosen before the fighting gets underway. Some will boost damage, some defense and other may increase your attacks against a specific race. You can also stack your tactics for a boost to one ability. The abilities themselves can take up multiple slots and the players both earn new abilities and new slots as they advance.

Mythic said that they have learned a lot from the RvR played in Dark Age of Camelot and plan to balance the combat system as accurate as possible. While we brought up most the major issues – such as buffbots – all the team would say is that they are fully aware of all the bad parts of DAoC PvP and would take steps to ensure that they do not make their way into WAR.

Player customization is another hot topic for most MMORPGs.

“What matters is the size of your choppa, not the shade of your eyebrows,” said Design Manager Paul Barnett.

While there is character customization, it will be more about the overall look of the character than minute changes to their faces. Remember, players can hang skulls and beards off their armor as trophies when they crush their opponents. All that said, the game also has a face cam in the UI and fully boned faces for changing moods.

Many people have been wondering about Chaos. For fans of evil and humans, that is the next racial pair coming down the development pipeline.

From a story perspective, Tzeentch will be the only Chaos god players can follow. Beyond that, they would not say much else, save that there is a very specific reason. However, all elements of the chaos pantheon will be in the game's story.

Dryads are also making an appearance in a quest to gather some wood and the giant regularly walks around the greenskin camps, just give him more beer and he will be happy.

The Dogs of War army will be represented as NPCs in instanced PvP scenarios to balance out the sides in certain fights. Basically it seems like it is in the Warhammer IP it will be in the game in some form or another.

PvP is the focus of the game and Mythic is doing everything to boost what they delivered in DAoC. Most PvP in the game is not instanced. There will be instanced battle scenarios. Points or ratings are assigned to each character in a group. The group is then paired with one on the opposing side of a similar point value. Whatever is lacking on either side will be reinforced by NPC Dogs of War units. Skirmishes, huge battles and sieges will also be going on in the world. It looks like there will be plenty of fighting for players to find and Mythic assured us there will have taken steps to ensure that the queues for the instanced scenarios will be limited.

Warhammer is a rich IP, but Mythic hopes to sell the game to more than just Warhammer fans. With all the detail and terms thrown about, it sounds like a nightmare for players to navigate without the aid of Google. Thus, Mythic invented the “Tome of Knowledge”. This is a book that each character begins the game with. At first, it is empty, but as players explore and discover new places, creatures and items, the book is filled in. What's more, you get experience for the filling. Every entry you find is in the voice of a unique character and carries a unique and sometimes contrary viewpoint to other entries in a book. For example, an entry for a great hammer might be a glowing rant from a Dwarf, joined by an angry, dismissive, incoherent tirade from an Orc. It’s not a boring encyclopedia.

Warhammer Online has come a long way in a short time, but has a long way to go to hit a Q4 2007 target. It is still too early to judge, but if they can keep up like they have, this could be one of the best MMOs on the floor in a year’s time.

Also Only-war.com have 4 new German gameplay videos up here.

The first video is 6 megs, the 2nd is 28 meg, 3rd & 4th 50 meg. (note the 1st video is complete crap compared to the others)

The videos are all closeup gameplay footage and considering they have only been going 8 months are pretty impressive.  The last two videos have a Mythic guy speaking clearly in the background, a couple of bad edits when he was giving interesting details.

In addition to other stuff, he said you can get gold and loot through RVR from the start, so you can totally stay out of PVE areas if you want all game (you can't get looted so you never lose items in pvp).

[HRose]

Mythic’s revolutionary use of an action bar

I laughed.

Why keeping pasting and linking stuff we already know? Link stuff that tells something new at least.

[Arthur_Parker]

He was probably talking about the morale feature, but you know that, though I agree it's marketing bollocks.

The ability to gold/gear up in rvr is new, besides it's good to have more than one source for a piece of information. E.g. more here

If the internet is filling up I can stop though :)

[5150]

As a huge Tzeentch fanboy for 20 years I approve of this design direction.

Seconded

In the event I wont be able to play my undead-legion-unleashing Necromancer (all praise Nagash) the chaos-god-of-sneezing-while-saying-his-name would be my next stop

There are going to be ALOT of pissed frothing raging loonies (aka Khorne fans) though

LOL@ Pink Horrors and Flamers.

I may be wrong but I'm guessing you haven't seen the latest incarnations of these? For example Horrors don't look like Kenny Everetts big handed character anymore (you'll either get this or you won't there no explaning to do) and flamers dont look...well.....shit anymore

[HRose]

Well, since you are going to read all that stuff at least link it and just quote the interesting lines.

The "three layered" system isn't anything crazy. The "tactics" bar sounds like a fixed stance system that you cannot switch in combat or a talent system set on the fly and the morale is like WoW's warrior rage with the difference that it is occasional and shared between all the nearby allies.

This tiny bit is the only original trait and also the way the ML abilities in DAoC should have been designed from the beginning.

The tactics bar will also hardly work since it will lead to min/maxing. Balancing it to actually have a role in the gameplay won't be easy at all. It also sounds like the powers system in CoH now that I think about it.

About the loot in PvP they have to explain better how it works.

[Arthur_Parker]

I like quoting full text because I don't like going to another website just to read, plus sometimes links/websites/games die.  I'll bold stuff that I think is interesting in future as you scare me.

Also, not everyone knows as much as you do.

[Modern Angel]

Is HRose spouting more polysyllabic drivel? I tend to zone out when I see his scary Abe Lincoln/Rasputin head.

Screw the Khorne kids. As far as the lore goes Khorne was always the least interesting of the Chaos gods. I'll take Tzeentch's magic and intrigue are one stylings, Nurgle's joy through decay madcap fun or Slannesh's Die Form S&M stuff over one dimensional skull rapers anyday.

[Simond]

Player customization is another hot topic for most MMORPGs.

“What matters is the size of your choppa, not the shade of your eyebrows,” said Design Manager Paul Barnett.

While there is character customization, it will be more about the overall look of the character than minute changes to their faces. Remember, players can hang skulls and beards off their armor as trophies when they crush their opponents. All that said, the game also has a face cam in the UI and fully boned faces for changing moods

Holy crap. Somebody gets it.

EQ2/Vanguard-style facial customisation has to be one of the biggest waste of dev time and PC resources out there - why spent an hour tweeking the flare of your character's nostrils when you'll be wearing a plate helm and only recognised by name tag/gear worn past ten in-game yards anyway?

[HaemishM]

I like quoting full text because I don't like going to another website just to read, plus sometimes links/websites/games die.  I'll bold stuff that I think is interesting in future as you scare me.

Unless an actual mod tells you to stop quoting and linking, keep it up and tell Hrose to fuck off. I like not having to go to fifty sites to read some of this stuff.

[Johny Cee]

I like quoting full text because I don't like going to another website just to read, plus sometimes links/websites/games die.  I'll bold stuff that I think is interesting in future as you scare me.

Also, not everyone knows as much as you do.

I like you quoting full text as well, with bold for appropriate emphasis.  Please continue to do so.

[HRose]

I have to admit that the goblins look great.

Great model and textures. I just hope that the animations are on par. And the ears! Please animate the EARS! (make them twitch at times during the idle animation, it would add a lot)

If anything I would make them just more curved and three-fingered instead of five (but then lore guys would complain, I guess?).

The art direction is MUCH improved from the screenshots released earlier. I love the color palette and I hope it's not just a filter on the screenshots. The dwarf model still sucks, but the rest is starting to look much better than WoW and not as cartoonish (or at least less goofy).

In particular the look of armor and weapons is finally matching the setting instead of going in the Voltron direction. If they stick to that path the game overall look will finish to be more appealing than WoW.

[Arthur_Parker]

What did you think of the videos?

Think the first video link died but you still can get the videos from below.

http://war.onlinewelten.com/articles.php?id=50

[HRose]

THE EARS ARE TWITCHING!

I'm downloading the first 7-min video, it's there, just trickier to get. It will take a while to download here.

[HRose]

Uhm, interesting stuff:



This is supposed to be the zone distribution. I wonder if the numbers are the level "tiers".

In this case there are two interesting observations. The first is that the zone are level capped as I guessed. The second is that the capital cities are EXCLUSIVELY PvP zones. Just like an end-game PvP raid zone that you can access only when the battle moves there. So no "hubs" like in WoW.

If you count all the circles they are 11. So confirming the number of zones for each "war front" (33 zones in the full game). But at the same time we know (even from the comments here above) that the starting zone for dwarves and greenskin is shared, with two opposite entry points and a seamless PvP zone in the middle.

Instead in that scheme the dwarves zone and greenskin zone is separated. So I wonder if they count it two times, like splitted in two in that graph, but seamlessly connected in the actual game.

In this case the unique, accessible zones per warfront would be four (plus the two capitals). Which is GOOD, imho. Since it would help to converge the PvP activity. Like a consolidated version of the DAoC's frontiers.

I wish we could have some confirmations.

[Arthur_Parker]

Some rumours from a semi-private forum that you probably know, I wasn't sure if I should post this type of totally unconfirmed rumour or not.  

No levels.

Four tiers, with ranks within each tier. You'll have 4 XP bars that allow you to select "packages" of advancements - abilities, static buffs, skills, etc. that you want to work on. Three will be "standard" bars, one will be RvR-specific.

The packages allow you to select advancements that interest you without level-locking them. So, if you're a big fan of exploring and you want to get a mount earlier than - say - an improved combat ability, you can choose a package that includes the ability to use a mount. Packages will have SOME restrictions - most likely tier-specific - but they offer players the ability to wind up with all of the stuff they want eventually, but also the ability to get it in the order of their choosing.

....


no pure "support" classes. In addition, no rogues or stealth classes.  Not fond of hybrid classes either, though there will almost certainly be SOME degree of hyrbidization for some races.

....

Gauntlet-style, iconic classes. To use the Gauntlet classes, a warrior beats the snot out of you, a Valkyrie sucks up damage all day long, a wizard blasts the crap out of you and an elf runs around really quickly, pinging you with arrows. You know exactly what you're in for simply by looking at your opponent.

EVERY CLASS - is a combat class, you won't find yourself ineffective simply because your group lacks total diversity.


Regarding differentiation, there are a number of things to consider:

1) In terms of simple aesthetics, customization will play a large role. Armor dying and trophies, primarily, will allow players to be visually unique without breaking the aforementioned "iconic look, iconic role" rule. When I say trophies, I mean things like orcs wearing belts of dwarf beards and the skulls of fallen opponents impaled on the spikes of their armor.

2) In terms of personal advancement, you have the package system. I explained this earlier, but it basically lets you play the class you want to play and advance in exactly the way that appeals to you, in exactly the order you want to do it.

3) And in terms of combat, you have tactics. This system is a strategic layer of combat where players choose from a pool of available "tactics" before combat that they are then locked into for a set period of time (minutes or hours, not days). Tactics can be things like persistant buffs, race or mob-specific attack bonuses, etc. As players advance, additional slots open up allowing players to use more - or more powerful tactics. Weak tactics are worth one point, the most powerful tactics are worth - say - five. So if you have ten slots open, you might choose ten minor tactics or two extremely powerful tactics or a mix of five of the former, one of the latter. Or any other mix in between.

This is designed to help players avoid being locked into a specific character spec in any significant way without giving them the ability to respec on the fly without any advanced thought. And, of course, to avoid the typical "I hit these three buttons and - SOMETIMES - this button over here too" style of play.

....

Skirmish RvR - players stumbling across enemy players in RvR areas and fighting right then and there.

Battlefields - Static, objective-based areas (take objective in question, plant flag, etc) that help to focus skirmish RvR a bit.

Scenarios - Instanced, point-balanced, objective-based "arenas." This is the closest cousin to Fantasy Battle. All players will be worth a certain number of points based on a set of stats. Players will be matched up evenly and groups with fewer points will be bolstered by NPC "Dogs of War." Dogs of War will be - obviously - worth less than their PC counterparts, but they'll avoid long queues AND one side constantly enjoying a slight but significant advantage due to population wierdness.

.....

Extensive, year+ long beta

 
 

[HRose]

I went from hyped to unimpressed in just a couple of minutes after you posted that.

They say "no levels" but the system is almost exactly as DAoC currently works. What changes if you call DAoC's spec-lines "packages"?

It looks like Warhammer does the same thing, reversed. For every level in DAoC you gain "x" specialization points that you allocate to your spec-lines. In Warhammer you select the packages / spec-paths and then you go level/unlock them, I guess that after you unlocked "x" skills in the packages you also gain one rank.

In DAoC: level up -> allocate
In Warhammer: allocate -> level up

Not so incredibly innovative ;p

Both suck because you need to have pre-planned your character if you don't want to finish with it being gimped because you wasted points on packages that aren't good.

The rest is good, imho. No exclusive support classes and no stealthers.

[Riggswolfe]

I'm surprised Dwarves don't have Troll/Giant/Whatever slayers as one of their classes. They better have before the game ships.

This game looks interesting. I like the idea of personalizing your armor. I wonder how it'll work for humans and elves though since they aren't as "uncivilized" as Orcs. Well, except the Chaos followers.

[HRose]

This game looks interesting. I like the idea of personalizing your armor.

Better than letting the players use SUPERUGLY dyes.

[Arthur_Parker]

Riggswolfe, the problem they have with Slayers is they don't want them grouped as it doesn't fit the IP.  I think they should have them but just have a lower limit on the group size when a Slayer joins a group.  Not sure what they are going to do, it's a bit strange to have a Slayer in their trailer and then not have them playable in game.

I went from hyped to unimpressed in just a couple of minutes after you posted that.

They say "no levels" but the system is almost exactly as DAoC currently works. What changes if you call DAoC's spec-lines "packages"?

It looks like Warhammer does the same thing, reversed. For every level in DAoC you gain "x" specialization points that you allocate to your spec-lines. In Warhammer you select the packages / spec-paths and then you go level/unlock them, I guess that after you unlocked "x" skills in the packages you also gain one rank.

In DAoC: level up -> allocate
In Warhammer: allocate -> level up

Not so incredibly innovative ;p

Both suck because you need to have pre-planned your character if you don't want to finish with it being gimped because you wasted points on packages that aren't good.

The rest is good, imho. No exclusive support classes and no stealthers.

Maybe you're just fickle?  

Again, I think you are reading too much into some of the details, the packages could just be the ability to use a 2-handed sword or a bow.  The ability to choose a mount "package" earlier than normal just because you like exploring is nice.  Also when tactics are mentioned "designed to help players avoid being locked into a specific character spec " that seems to acknowledge and also be an attempt to limit gimping.

The "4 XP bars" comment went right over my head, so no idea how that works at all.