Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Preview

I had the unique opportunity last week to visit Mythic HQ and learn all about their exciting upcoming game, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The inventors and master of RvR are building this game to offer a brand new type of RvR experience, which looks like a heck of a lot of fun. This is a long one, so bear with me!

Races and Classes

There will be two alliances in the game, boiling down to Order vs Chaos. On the side of Order are the human Empire, the haughty High Elves, and the ale-loving Dwarves. On the side of Chaos are the Orcs and Goblins that comprise the Greenskins, the mutated servants of Chaos, and the stealthy Dark Elves. Each race has four (or so) classes that exemplify the racial archetypes. For example, Dwarves have the Ironbreaker, which is their defensive fighter, the Hammerer, which is the offensive fighter, the healing spellcaster Rune Priest, and the Engineer, a ranged inventor and magic user.

RvR

There are RvR and non-RvR parts of every zone, so you won't have to experience load times when entering a PvP conflict. All PvP is consensual. You can gain Trophy Items from RvR to let you customize your armor for looks (and most likely not stats). For example, if you're an Orc and you kill enough Dwarves, you could get a Dwarf skull which you could place on your shoulder spikes, on your belt buckle, or perhaps on a chain around you neck. The End-Game content is a RvR campaign to take over enemy cities. If your side is totally outnumbered, as tends to happen in these types of games there could be PvP boosts to your alliance to try and balance it out, through stat bonuses or extra NPC spawns. Currently, they are planning on making it so that opposite alliances can't communicate, although that may change.

Zones

There are 11 zones per pair of conflicting enemies, and three sets of enemies, bringing the total to 33 zones on release. Zone configuration:
            *    1 - 4 are tiered zones
            |    middle 4 is a neutral zone at start
1 - 2 - 3 - 4    * are capitals
|   |   | \ |    battlefield moves between two capitals
|   |   |   4    can probably go from 2 to your capital
|   |   | / |    go from your capital to allies capitals
1 - 2 - 3 - 4    each set has same basic layout
            |
            *
You can gain control of the tier 4 zones and capital cities though winning Battlefields events, which are non-instanced events of various types in those zones. There are also instanced Scenarios for random PvPing for objectives. In order to try and avoid the long queue times and realm imbalancing that plagues other games, they are planning on bringing in NPCs to balance the player teams out.

Quests

There are a few interesting new types of quests:
  • Automatic group quests (ie, "everyone nearby feed the ogre")
  • Non-PvP RvR quests (ie, "heal the hurt dwarves with ale" vs "kill the hurt dwarves and steal their beards")
  • Branching Quests (ie, "Deliver the note to gain exp" vs "Sell the note to a spy for some quick cash")
  • "Christmas" Quests (ie, wandering though the wilderness you find someone who needs quick help with a big reward... encouraging world exploration)
There are three internal quest classifications:
  • Green: Non PvP in PvE areas (ie, fedex quests)
  • Yellow: Non PvP in RvR areas (ie, gather components for an NPC in a battlefield)
  • Red: PvP in RvR areas (kill the dwarves!)
Each type of quest is available from level 1 on for all playstyles, allowing people to do any sort of playstyle from the beginning to the end of the game! Finally, Mythic is making sure that you always get a useful reward... even if you're an orc doing dark elf quest, you'll be able to get something that'll help your character.

Combat

WARNING: Combat is still heavily under development, so if the game doesn't end up anything like this, don't shoot the messanger! They are planning on having three major themes to combat, Tactics, Main Combat, and Morale Bonuses. There is a Strategy bar where you add Tactics pre-fight to boost up your stats or abilities. For example, you can get +5 to ice spells, +5 strength, faster casting, etc. The bar has X spaces, each "Tactic" has Y slots. You will get Tactics like you get any other item, spell, or ability. You also might find ways to lower the number of slots certain Tactics take up in the Strategy bar. There is also a Morale meter, for you to build up Morale as you fight. You can spend a little bit to use a low power ability, or build it up to use a higher power one. You also can get Morale skills like any other item. You gain Morale by fighting well (eg, if you're hitting a huge Rock Golem and not doing any damage, you certainly aren't gaining any Morale from it!), and lose it quickly when the fight ends. They're planning on making Auto-attack weapon damage and fighting ability damage independant, the guiding metaphor for that is that an Ogre with a spoon can still kill you, midget with big magical halberd can't.

PvP vs PvE

You can go through the entire game on only PvP, only PvE, or (as they're hoping most folks do), a mix of both. The game starts 80% PvE 20% PvP, and they're planning on having it end up with the opposite ratio. There will be PvE raids for those that get bored of RvR, but RvR is the major focus of the game. You can RvR from day 1 of playing, there's no initial time where all you do is kill bats and rats.

Look+Feel

They're putting big artistic time into Facial Expressions for the game, making it so your character actually looks like the emotions he is feeling. They're putting a rear-view mirror panel into the bottom of the screen, a la Doom, to show you how your character is reacting to events. Your character also changes as you gain power, for example Orcs get bigger, Dwarves get more fancy long beards, and al warrior classes get more beefy muscles. With the texturing in the game, it's quite obvious when this increases too, with the huge amount of detail they put into everything. The interface will be standardized and skinnable/moddable by players. They want everyone to get the best experience they can out of the interface, so they're making it highly customizable. Finally, the Banners, Game Looks, etc, are all extremely accurate to original Games Workshop art, since every bit of art has to pass through GW's approval system. So, Warhammer miniature and tabletop fans rejoice!

Items

WARNING 2: Items are also still heavily under development. They're planning on having NO Bind on Pickup, and only maybe having Bind on Equip. They want a robust economy, and they're considering adding some sort of item decay to balance it out. The Trophies are a big way to customize your character's looks, and since everyone will be getting a different set of them, you can reach into the Trophy Grab Bag and set yourself up to look truly unique.

Comments

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nothing really
# Apr 06 2006 at 1:21 PM Rating: Decent
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96 posts
There will be a monthly fee, they stated this from the beginning.
Yes this game was cancelled 1-2 years ago as they ran out of funds and GW wasnt prepared to pay out, but was then taken up by a different company (mythic) who are now making a new game from scratch. They say it'll be released 2007 sometime, so I'm betting on 2008~2009.
this real?
# Apr 06 2006 at 2:31 AM Rating: Decent
i heard this game got cancelled like a year ago

Edited, Thu Apr 6 02:26:39 2006
monthly fee?
# Apr 06 2006 at 12:14 AM Rating: Decent
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50 posts
any word yet if there will be monthly fees? From past experiances with games workshop their will be and every quarter it will increase 10% to acomidate(sp) their growing players. Yeah you would think if more people play/buy form a company the prices would drop not increase.
Warhammer & Warcraft
# Apr 05 2006 at 6:56 PM Rating: Decent
27 posts
High expectations indeed. Though I have no intention of leaving Warcraft, it's cleary not a strong Realm War game. With Warhammer being such a beloved and nostalgic setting, hopefully Mythic can deliver on that front.
PWN!!!
# Apr 05 2006 at 3:42 PM Rating: Decent
i play both warhammer 40K and fantasy and am currently in the middle of a 150thousand point per side battl that is taking my whole backyard (a 40K battle) i will almost defienlty end up quitting FFXI when this comes out also if the stupid kid that threw his basketball over the fenc happens to read this u should know my fire warriors will get revenge http://www.warhammeronline.com/english/home/index.php

edited to include site

Edited, Wed Apr 5 15:41:32 2006
Mythic > ALL
# Apr 05 2006 at 8:35 AM Rating: Decent
I can't wait for it to hit beta, then its bye bye crappy World of PeaceGrindFarmCarebear-craft.

I love the aspect that PvE'ers can hide inside the non captureable areas, like in DAoC, and then everyone who wishes to experience a MMORPG game to its full, can go PvE for items, then PvP for endgame content. Just as WoW should have been to, but Blizzard are to clueless and ignorant.

Edited, Wed Apr 5 09:36:24 2006
High expectations
# Apr 05 2006 at 7:56 AM Rating: Decent
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91 posts
If this meets up to my expectations I worry for my own health. I hope I'll have enough time to eat :P
news
# Apr 05 2006 at 7:49 AM Rating: Good
It doesnt have anything to do with FFXI. They are jus ttrying to bring news of upcoming MMO's.
Awesome~
# Apr 05 2006 at 7:12 AM Rating: Decent
This is awesome for a die-hard fan like myself, I'm gonna try this out! And maybe model a miniature to look like my character :p

Peace
Re: Tyranids
# Apr 05 2006 at 6:21 AM Rating: Decent
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253 posts
Actually, it's Warhammer.
Epic can be played as both Warhammer and Warhammer 40k.
Epic is just the scale of the thing, with different rules on the whole.

Warhammer is the original fantasy game.
Warhammer 40K is the future space conflict game.

Tyranids are in the latter unfortunately.
And Genestealers still suck from their original major nerf ^^
RE: Re: Tyranids
# Apr 08 2006 at 10:06 AM Rating: Decent
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57 posts
"Warhammer epic" is the super large-scale warhammer 40k game with really small figures. "Warmaster" is the super large scale warhammer fantasy battles game with really small figures.
>.>
# Apr 05 2006 at 3:04 AM Rating: Decent
28 posts
No Skaven?


DIE-DIE, MAN-THINGS!
Warhammer
# Apr 05 2006 at 1:13 AM Rating: Decent
I never played Warhammer i seen people play but never played myself...is their a release date for this?1
Um...
# Apr 05 2006 at 12:27 AM Rating: Decent
Jack of All Trades
******
29,633 posts
What, exactly, does this have to do with FFXI again? -_-
O.o
# Apr 04 2006 at 9:41 PM Rating: Decent
Hmm im playing FFXI still. sounds cool but i just dont have the time.
Clarification
# Apr 04 2006 at 9:15 PM Rating: Decent
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233 posts
Actually, Drakemaster, this would be Warhammer Fantasy Battles =) (if we're gonna get technical)
I want playable Tyranids
# Apr 04 2006 at 7:03 PM Rating: Decent
Thief's Knife
*****
15,054 posts
What no Tyranids? booooooo. I really wanted to play a Genestealer ;_;
____________________________
Final Fantasy XI 12-14-11 Update wrote:
Adjust the resolution of menus.
The main screen resolution for "FINAL FANTASY XI" is dependent on the "Overlay Graphics Resolution" setting.
If the Overlay Graphics Resolution is set higher than the Menu Resolution, menus will be automatically resized.


I thought of it first:

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=130073657654872218#20
RE: I want playable Tyranids
# Apr 04 2006 at 8:44 PM Rating: Decent
this is warhammer epic not warhammer 40k...
RvR and graphics
# Apr 04 2006 at 6:16 PM Rating: Decent
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233 posts
Sounds like they're really trying to capture the Warhammer feel with the RvR system.


I relaly wish they'd make it a bit more dark, brooding and Gothic looking. It looks a bit too bright from the screenshots I've seen (the original Warhammer MMO that was under development but got cancelled captured the style perfectly)

Edited, Tue Apr 4 19:24:28 2006
Max Level..
# Apr 04 2006 at 6:02 PM Rating: Decent
Must find the max level. Anyone know it?
RE: Max Level..
# Apr 07 2006 at 6:00 AM Rating: Decent
There are no real levels. It's entirely career based.
cool
# Apr 04 2006 at 3:56 PM Rating: Good
*****
14,326 posts
Sounds cool. Will have to check it out.
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