Warhammer April Newsletter & Annoucements

[garthilk]

Weird, I made this thread yesterday and now it's gone. Anyway, here's the April newsletter info. Guild beta is annoucned along with the games delay and other features. Here's the links.

Chaos Chosen - Career Overview
Video Blogs - Pauls Camerphone
Grab Bag - Guild Beta Infoz
Screenshots - Chaos
Concept Art - Sweet

I'll add the rest of the links later.

[angry.bob]

Excellent. Though they really need to "hotten" some of the faces if you know what I mean.

Also, I forget... was there some sort of site guild thing here that we used/are going to use to apply for the beta?

[Rasix]

Weird, I made this thread yesterday and now it's gone.

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=9851.0

Helpful hint: post when you've got something to say.  Not when you've got something to say in the future.

[Riggswolfe]

The guild beta info caught my eye. I'm hoping Schild will try to get f13 in as a guild.

[tazelbain]

Ba, how much longer must Mark Jacobs taunt me?

[eldaec]

Wow, they really are slow pedalling on information now.

[HRose]

Wow, they really are slow pedalling on information now.

Well, they have more than one year to fill now.

And probably most of the stuff is blank even for them. Still on the design board.

[Nonentity]

I wonder how many of the WoW raiding guilds will actually want to play the PvP centric game.

I know that my guild definitely has interest.

[Wolf]

I put an app in for my WoW guild. They're raiding right now, but about half of them are just doing it while waiting for WAR :)

[Nonentity]

I put an app in for my WoW guild. They're raiding right now, but about half of them are just doing it while waiting for WAR :)

It's probably about half-and-half for mine. Half loves to pvp and hates pve, and the other half loves pve and pvps sometimes.

[Dren]

The guild beta info caught my eye. I'm hoping Schild will try to get f13 in as a guild.

I'd like in if he does.

[Merusk]

Chaos Chosen sounds fun. I worry that Chaos will wind-up the "kiddies" faction the way Alliance has been in WoW, though. 

Clearly this means I need to look harder at the greenskins... in 18 months.

[Nebu]

I think the key is to get into beta and find out which realm has the most overpowered characters and then play the other realm at release.  That's the best way I've found to avoid the kiddies.  It's a bit rough in the early going, but seems to be the way to go for the long term.

[tazelbain]

I don't think this delay would have happened in the pre-WoW market.  Polish is king and even more important than Christmas.

<obilgatory_beta_whoring />

[Merusk]

I think the key is to get into beta and find out which realm has the most overpowered characters and then play the other realm at release.  That's the best way I've found to avoid the kiddies.  It's a bit rough in the early going, but seems to be the way to go for the long term.

Good idea, but it sucked so very, very, very hard playing in Hibernia.  Didn't help that I was a Warden, then a Blademaster.  Ugh, no wonder I quit before hitting 26.

Back to WAR, wtf is up with the class descriptions and "fighting the xxx"  They're all pretty much the same text.

"ooh they're powerful because xyz. Key to their abilities is ABC.  Kill them first!"

[Xanthippe]

No pretty female option?

[eldaec]

No pretty female option?

It's Warhammer. Anything pretty would break the lore.

So a perfect fit with Mythic artists then.

[trias_e]

The FAQ still says a 2007 release.  I remember previously people were talking about the game's delay to 2008.  Anyone have info on that?

I suppose the chance of a game actually staying on schedule is pretty low, so 2008 is a good bet.  Still.

I'm more interested in this game than I thought I'd be.  I'm not sure how their RvR system will actually pan out, but I did enjoy DAOC PvP, and they have plenty of experience thanks to that, so I think that they can make a good PvP based MMORPG, at least mechanics-wise.

[Nija]

Well, I know that F&F alpha/beta/gamma has been pushed back like 6 weeks now. I've been waiting and waiting.

And dodging pirate games in the meantime.

[kaid]

Remember there are three evil and three good races. The evil races are orks/goblins, chaos and dark elves. I would hold off on comments about no good looking races for the evil side until the dark elves come out.

[HaemishM]

The FAQ still says a 2007 release.  I remember previously people were talking about the game's delay to 2008.  Anyone have info on that?

The newsletter confirmed a delay in release until 2008. I'd say it's probably a good thing.

[Hoax]

Remember there are three evil and three good races. The evil races are orks/goblins, chaos and dark elves. I would hold off on comments about no good looking races for the evil side until the dark elves come out.

Some of the dark elves will also be very nekkid, think L2 nekkid if they are going with the lore.  High Elves, not so much with the skimpy clothing.

[eldaec]

Remember there are three evil and three good races. The evil races are orks/goblins, chaos and dark elves. I would hold off on comments about no good looking races for the evil side until the dark elves come out.

Clearly you have played neither Warhammer nor Daoc.

There may be races that look good, but there are no good looking races in anything made by Games Workshop or by Mythic. Yes I know about witch elves. No they don't wear much. No that's not any guarantee they will be good looking. Or that they will even be a playable class.

I don't see any of this as a bad thing btw.


And if there is a guild beta application going around, I'll also put in a 'me too'.

[Slayerik]

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/warhammer-online/783684p1.html

Text:
"We talk to Mark Jacobs about the difficult decision to delay the release of the highly anticipated MMO.
By GameSpy Staff | April 25, 2007


 It's never an easy decision to delay a game in development. Regardless of the reasons, doing so means incurring costs in manpower, salaries and possible write-offs in marketing and publicity programs. When a game is as high-profile as EA Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the problems multiply exponentially. MMOs are always a capital-intensive proposition and a delay of even a few months can add a lot to a company's initial cash outlay. More important than mere dollars, though, is the potential loss of "buzz" as speculation about the reasons for the delay fills Internet message boards and other company's offerings step in to fill the breach. When EA Mythic announced that the game would be delayed in this month's fan newsletter, we spoke with General Manager Mark Jacobs about the decision.


GameSpy: Let's start with the obvious question. Why was Warhammer Online pushed back to the first quarter of 2008?

Mark Jacobs: The simple answer is that we have decided to invest more time in development to create the best game possible. In the past we've talked about launching in the fall of 2007 -- now we're targeting early 2008. We have decided to take a few additional months to make sure the game is polished, unforgettable and glorious. That was my promise to Games Workshop when I signed the deal and I intend to keep it.
 "

More....

So yeah, who is joining me for the Age of Conan debacle? :)



EDIT: I just noticed Haemish mentioned this in the newsletter thread, feel free to combine...but I guess this kinda makes it official...

[Arthur_Parker]

http://www.warhammeronline.com/english/community/guildBeta/form.php

Guild beta app is up, needs schild or someone to fill it in as it's only one application accepted per guild.

[Merusk]

So yeah, who is joining me for the Age of Conan debacle? Smiley

Depends on if I wind-up in a beta phase or not.  I won't buy an MMO for the first few months if I haven't beta'd it.  Lets some of the shine wear off and more jaded impressions to surface so I can judge things better. They've got a lot of promises to live up to.

[eldaec]

http://www.warhammeronline.com/english/community/guildBeta/form.php

Guild beta app is up, needs schild or someone to fill it in as it's only one application accepted per guild.

I did think it was just a little bit amusing that the application describes a raiding guild as a 'paramilitary group'. This at least demonstrates a certain understanding of the market.

Back to WAR, wtf is up with the class descriptions and "fighting the xxx"  They're all pretty much the same text.

"ooh they're powerful because xyz. Key to their abilities is ABC.  Kill them first!"

The thing I noticed about the class descriptions is that they give out REALLY bad advice.

The author of those descriptions seems to think you should kill in the following order...

1) Tanks
2) DPS
3) Support

Now, I might be going a little loopy, but I'm pretty sure that ignoring support and going after tanks first is a somewhat questionable tactic. Unless WAR really does reinvent the diku.

In other class description news, Chosen appear to be buff aura tanks. If my theory on how the classes are divided up is correct, that probably completes the list of unique tank types for each side (Dwarf/DElf debuff-taunt-tanks, Orc/Human cc-tanks, and now Chaos/HElf buff-tanks). I might have human and HElf the wrong way around.

[Nebu]

The author of those descriptions seems to think you should kill in the following order...

1) Tanks
2) DPS
3) Support

Now, I might be going a little loopy, but I'm pretty sure that ignoring support and going after tanks first is a somewhat questionable tactic. Unless WAR really does reinvent the diku.

It's very situational and will depend heavily on the game's interrupt structure, crowd control, and damage mitigation.  There are many instances in DAoC where killing tanks first is a good idea  since they are difficult to cc and can often be caught overextending out of range of their healers/support.  Of course a "tank" in WAR may be very different from a "tank" in another mmog.  We'll have to see how their rock/paper/scissors setup pans out.

[Venkman]

I actually take their justification for the delay at face value. It's an important IP and really EA's first true foray back into MMOs in quite some time. This one they don't want to screw up.

However, I also find it personally convenient that they now WON'T be launching near AoC.

I swear, this year seems designed for me specifically:

LoTRO now.
PotBS in two or so months unless LoTRO doesn't go dim in the mid-game
Huxley sometime towards end of summer I think (typical Fall launch)
AoC before Christmas (typical Fall resets launch)
WAR now early 2008 (typical Spring launch)

Plenty of time to get in, burn out, move on. But this line up is the first I've looked at in a long time knowing I'd be buying these games, beta or not. They'd really need to be crapped up for me to not do so, simply because they are each offering such a breadth of unique elements (except LoTRO which actually is fine in it's similaritiness).

[schild]

Beta Signups

[CassandraR]

Hrm. I was greatly looking forward to the game this fall but I hope they are better able to polish it off with the extra time. I imagine with them going back and redoing dwarf and greenskin areas that it will take even longer for the information about the elf classes to be made available. Grr. No clue what I want to play as of yet. Guess I will have to wait and see it in action.

[Azazel]

No pretty female option?

It's Warhammer. Anything pretty would break the lore.

So a perfect fit with Mythic artists then.

Well, there's the silver elves. and then there's also the other elves, with paler skin and lizards. Who fight the first elves.

Not included in the game are the other elves, with trees. And also the older elves, with ships, that were mostly written out of the WH lore.

And Slaanesh was left out. Possibly because of an overabundance of breasts, but possibly also because of pink clothing.

[Speedbrusher]

It's very situational and will depend heavily on the game's interrupt structure, crowd control, and damage mitigation.  There are many instances in DAoC where killing tanks first is a good idea  since they are difficult to cc and can often be caught overextending out of range of their healers/support.  Of course a "tank" in WAR may be very different from a "tank" in another mmog.  We'll have to see how their rock/paper/scissors setup pans out.

Also, one or more groups on the English EU servers specifically went for enemy tank-heavy groups' main assist tank as their first target, since that would negate the other group's focused fire effect (because it was near impossible to target enemies while dead).

[eldaec]

it will take even longer for the information about the elf classes to be made available. Grr. No clue what I want to play as of yet. Guess I will have to wait and see it in action.

If you think it through, you likely already know 6 of the 8 elf classes.

High Elf Tank - Chosen type buff aura tank. (assuming that's what the Chosen specialty is, it was pretty hard to work out from the description - it might be more like a tank/dd hybrid, daoc-Reaver sort of thing)
High Elf Nuker - Squig-style pets plus ranged dd.
High Elf support - shaman equivalent - smite cleric archetype.

Dark Elf Tank - Ironbreaker type Debuff-taunt tank
Dark Elf Nuker - Engineeresque Short range aoe damage class.
Dark Elf Support - Warrior priest style Paladin/Shadow-Knight archetype

DPS classes are hard to know because we don't have enough examples to spot the three archetypes yet.

[CassandraR]

I do know one thing. I am soo not going to play anything supporty. My time as a WoW Paladin cured me permanently of that, ironically enough.