Warhammer Online E3 Preivew

[Garthilk]

Read the full article here (http://www.warhammeralliance.com/article/alliance-exclusives/warhammer-online-e3-preivew.html).

Our very own resident moderator and artist Akirra was there at E3. He got the opportunity to see the game first hand and really examine what we've learned about the last 8 months first hand. Akirra has done a wonderful job summarizing his experience in this hefty little preview. Check it out.

[Garthilk]

Kudos to Akirra for making the journey for us and taking the time to write this great article. Thanks again mate, and nice work.

[Bolg]

Kudos to Akirra for making the journey for us and taking the time to write this great article. Thanks again mate, and nice work.

Seconded and signed!

You flat out ROCK!!! :jakescre:

[Shadowski]

very sweet....thank goodness they are animating weapon sheathing....and allowing characters to put away their weapons. I was worried from all the screenshots, since weapons were always in the hands of the characters, a minor detail but that stuff bugs me.

Great review, thanks for the info. More informative than just about anything else that came out of E3.

[Gaunt]

Very very nice report mate. As the above poster said it was a lot better than any of the other previews that came out of E3. Cheers again.

[Kinan]

Ah, at last something like a real preview from E3 :) Hope some more will follow.

Very nice description of the "Tome". It looks very cool, all those features. I have one concern about it, however. Those of you who played EQ2 may remember a quest journal there, one of the most developed quest journals in MMOGs. But I remember at one point they were forced to limit the number of active quests in the journal because of load it caused. WAR journal seems to be even more pumped with features, and basically in any point of the world you should track all the journal and see if you updated some info in it. So my concern is though the Tome is looking great in concept and in-house testing, it may cause severe performance problems in the live servers with thousands of players.

[NoneSuch]

I hope we get to write in it , Nothing I loved more was writing out my daily actitivies in a Rp form into my journal = D

[Vervayne]

Excellent job Akirra. Thank you for your summary. :) Finally one from who I know as a good MMO player. It makes a big difference in who is writing the preview. :) If its someone who really knows MMOs, they tend to have a different insight. Akirra knows his stuff!

[Pendrako]

Awesome work! Thanks for representing us Akirra, you managed to give us a really good insight into the finer points of the game.

Now, about those things you discussed 'off the record'...

:cool:

[Jesper]

great preview, akirra:D
Now time for some question that still don't have a response:P

1) What is the small green bar in the left bottom quarter? It seems there is a tactic icon above it:P

2)What do the tactics do? (at least the 2 in the demo:P the first "bloop up" seems to give a % to stun on dmg O_O? Does gobbos and orcs share the same tactics? Or are class specific?)

3)what do the abilities in the demo do? (at least the 3 in the demo...are them working like daoc styles or wow ista attacks like, let's say, mortal strike? or something else? i'm talking about the ability on the action bar)

It would be great have some replies on these question (2 & 3 mainly) cause we have really no clue atm from previuos previews:P

[Londonbaz]

Thanks a lot for that Akirra - its nice to get some info from "one of own". Thanks for taking the time and enlightening all of us poor mortals!

[Vegetta]

Nice Article!!

[bard2000]

very nice! though one thing concerns me!

I hate to pick it up, but dosn't that inventory screen look ALOT likes wows? :confused:

[Avehearth]

cool preview, i like the idea of the tome too :)

[checkthis5000]

very nice! though one thing concerns me!

I hate to pick it up, but dosn't that inventory screen look ALOT likes wows? :confused:

If you're referring to the paper doll, it's looks pretty much like the standard. Every MMO that I've played has a paper doll setup like that. It reminds me of UO. If you're talking about something else, then I don't know. :)

But I don't think it looks a lot like WoW's, I think it looks a lot like any inventory screen since the beginning of inventory screens which is a plus for me, since I tend to frown on someone trying to "revolutionize" the paper doll interface or the inventory.

[Militarized]

Loving the "Post E3 Preview" stage we're in. :D thanks for writing it up!

[kharnage]

Awesome!!!!!! Thank you very much!!!!

And once again, the coolest thing is the way Mythic and GW work together to keep the game true to the Warhammer name!!!!!!!!!!!! Every once in a while I get a little worried that they may stray, but everything I have heard has been absolutely magnificent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D

Keep up the great work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-D

[Magua]

I, for one, couldn't be happier with the way things are progressing. Thanks for the excellent write-up!

[Rohan]

Nice work Akirra, well written. :D

[Richard_Mythic]

Hey, look, he mentioned me, I feel special now. :)

[Archangel-WHA]

Phoar, that's a bit good isn't it?

Akkira dude, awesome.

I bring you thanks.

[Kilrogg-WHA]

It's nice to get a point of view from someone who has played DAoC.

[observer]

Now, what is cool about this particular book is that as you explore the world, influence friends, and of course kill monsters, chase people, and engage in quests - in short play the game ? your personal Tome will fill up with information and tidbits concerning the deep lore and rich history of the Warhammer universe. This allows you to explore and view over 25 years of rich Warhammer history later at your leisure, and also prevents Mythic from having to shove the required history down your throat through seemingly endless quests (ala DAoC, and almost every other MMO currently out there).

This is great news! I'm one of the biggest newbs to WAR. Now i can just learn some of the lore and history in game, how cool is that?!

[Akirra]

great preview, akirra:D
Now time for some question that still don't have a response:P

1) What is the small green bar in the left bottom quarter? It seems there is a tactic icon above it:P

2)What do the tactics do? (at least the 2 in the demo:P the first "bloop up" seems to give a % to stun on dmg O_O? Does gobbos and orcs share the same tactics? Or are class specific?)

3)what do the abilities in the demo do? (at least the 3 in the demo...are them working like daoc styles or wow ista attacks like, let's say, mortal strike? or something else? i'm talking about the ability on the action bar)

It would be great have some replies on these question (2 & 3 mainly) cause we have really no clue atm from previuos previews:P

1) The green bar is your tactics bar, basically each time you do an ability it takes some juice from it, think of it as an endurance/power bar.

2) Tactics are your standard abilities, to compare it to guild wars, tactics are the spells/styles you have active when you enter an instanced. Although you know how to use more, you can only use so many active at once. At later levels some of the tatics will even take up more then one quick bar slot. However a good thing about this is between fights (the non combat roam around the zone) you will have the ability to change your tactics on the move (don't even have to stand still) so you aren’t forced with something that sounded good at the time but later realized you never use it.

3) On the Goblin Shamen the three abilities I had were a ranged single target nuke, a realm pbaoe heal (for my realm, not just my group), and a realm pbaoe buff. On the Orc Fighter I had a style, and combat buff, sadly I forget what the specifics of those two abilities are because I was more interested in the shamen. I am a terrible melee person, however I was one of the best casters/healers on our daoc server back when I played "full time", hence my lack of interest in the melee aspect of the game.




And thank you everyone for the kind words. :)

[Richard_Mythic]

1) The green bar is your tactics bar, basically each time you do an ability it takes some juice from it, think of it as an endurance/power bar.

No, not quite... You're right with the description, just not the name. Really has little to nothing to do with Tactics in particular.

2) Tactics are your standard abilities, to compare it to guild wars, tactics are the spells/styles you have active when you enter an instanced, although you know how to use more, you can only use so many at once. However a good thing about this is between fights (the non combat roam around the zone) you will have the ability to change your tactics on the move so you aren’t forced with something that sounded good at the time but later realized you never use it.

No... Your abilities/styles/spells are your standard abilities/styles/spells/etc, not your Tactics... Think of tactics more along the lines of strategies... They're passives that you equip before going into specific encounters. For example, if you are a Greenskin and know you're going to be fighting Dwarfs, you would load up on anti-stuntie tactics. If you know you'll be fighting a Giant or some other really offensive creature, you might load up on Defensive tactics.

3) On the Goblin Shamen the three abilities I had were a ranged single target nuke, a realm pbaoe heal (for my realm, not just my group), and a realm pbaoe buff. On the Orc Fighter I had a style, and combat buff, sadly I forget what the specifics of those two abilities are because I was more interested in the shamen. I am a terrible melee person, however I was one of the best casters/healers on our daoc server back when I played "full time", hence my lack of interest in the melee aspect of the game.

And thank you everyone for the kind words. :)

Hope that clears things up a little. :)

[Vervayne]

I was one of the best casters/healers on our daoc server back when I played "full time", hence my lack of interest in the melee aspect of the game.

Walking away from every fight alive when the rest of your group is dead is not being the best healer Akirra! *cries*
You were always an awesome caster though! :p

[Akirra]

It's not my fault the rest of the group died...

And thanks Richard for clearing that up, you know a lot more about the game then any of us right now, and most of my answers are extrapolated (sometimes poorly :) ) from words you and your coworkers said at E3.

[Richard_Mythic]

It's not my fault the rest of the group died... :D


And thanks Richard for clearing that up, you know a lot more about the game then any of us right now, and most of my answers are extrapolated (sometimes poorly :) ) from words you and your coworkers said at E3. :)

No problem at all, I know how hard it can be getting everything down just right when you're getting about an hour's worth of info thrown at you in 30 minutes worth of time. And even worse you have the game running right there in front of you, which is FAR more interesting to watch than some Powerpoint presentation. I was Press for 2 years or so afterall. ;)

[morskittar]

The endurance bar seems to be similar to other MMORPGs' mana bars.

Is there anything to differentiate between spells and special abilities? Winds of Magic modifiers, miscasts, or the like?

[Jesper]

thx for the info akirra & richard:D the use of the same bar for both kind of abilities (both tank and caster ones) is a nice touch...nice to know also that there will be realm targeting abilities (like croc ring daoc ability for example) instead of only group based.

One of my concerning is about casting/interruptions...this way it may be similar to Guild wars combat --> hours of combat if both teams are skilled...not a fan of istagib battles, but neither of everlasting ones:D Hope mythic guys will have a special eye for this kind of balancement!

If you can remember, what exactly the morale ability in the demo did? And what the tactics did:P? It's just to have an exact idea of what we can expect...sry for my curiosity:D

[Rohan]

It's not my fault the rest of the group died...

And thanks Richard for clearing that up, you know a lot more about the game then any of us right now, and most of my answers are extrapolated (sometimes poorly :) ) from words you and your coworkers said at E3.

Haha I can definately relate to your first comment. "Well why didn't you kite sooner!" I always loved playing cleric in a caster group. :p

And like you said, sometimes different people within a company use different words to describe things (always gives the "ohhh, you meant this..." factor). Sometimes people will use words that the press are already familiar with so that they can understand better/quicker rather than using the more technical terms.

[Jetrpg]

Yeah thanks for the info Akirra, most so your impression of the game.

Can not wait for more info ... but alas I will :) .

[Bhazrak]

Nice read, thanks for the info Akirra :D

[Foebane]

Awesome read. Thanks for the info Akirra and Richard.

[devil slayer]

Nice read. I'm getting more and more excited about this game.

[Silhouette]

Thank you Akirra for your review, its good to know that a community took the time out to go and get more infomation that we all eagerly want and thanks to Richard for adding the this that and other parts on the forums of the questions raised from the E3 expo.

[Phire]

Your review Akirra was by far the best. Thanks so much for your input to the game. Your post made me sign up to this wonderful board, too! :D The game as displayed by E3 does look like it has promise. Tactics are a great addition. I agree with the book/quest posting though that indicated lag. :( Perhaps that could be offloaded to the client somehow (like once per day?)

[Wiikate]

Jeremy told me how one of their artists created some really cool Orcs that had war paint all over their bodies, but when they presented it to GW they were told that they couldn't use it in the context that they wished to - since Orcs with war paint are Savage Orcs
Reading between the lines. They used the concepts for something anyway? There are Savage Orcs in the game too? ..Guess I'm just twisting the words too much.

[checkthis5000]

Reading between the lines. They used the concepts for something anyway? There are Savage Orcs in the game too? ..Guess I'm just twisting the words too much.

My guess is that the artist designed the warpaint style as a way of customizing your character and since it was a good idea, but there aren't playable Savage Orcs, then they used the concepts for NPCs.

[AlienOverlord]

Thanks for the preview! Lots of cool details and I really liked what I heard about the Tome

it will be a great way for players to compare notes and e-peen, or to just kill some time reading over the extensive Warhammer lore while waiting for friends and clan mates to log in.

The Tome sounds like such a better way to bring the lore of Warhammer to the players esp. compared to other MMORPGs like WoW with all those lame books laying around. There was never any order to how you found them and they were always so wordy, they were just time-wasters and inconveniently placed.

The Tome you can read anytime you like and it sounds like it will introduce the lore *in proper order* to the players.

Plus the Tome will act like a nice 'souvenir/trophy case' of your character's history, much like the mission souvenir's you can get in City of Villains. It's really nice to be able to flip through those and remember the missions you did to get them. Nice to see Mythic will have a similar mechanic. Great work!

[Duerghaul]

Outstanding report and summary. Thank ya much for the effort. Did the Mythic folk seem receptive to input and feedback? Im just hoping for a good dialogue between players and developers so this game comes out right.