[US Herald] - Open Beta Update

[Garthilk]

From the From the Dev Team category we have: Open Beta Update.
Hello everyone, We've received a lot of great feedback from Open Beta already and have some great changes in the works that we'll be adding over the next few days and shortly after launch.

It's exciting to see how much everyone is enjoying the game and we can't wait to see you all playing come launch. Below are just some of the areas we're working on and the changes we have planned. We'll continue to monitor in-game for your feedback and work to make your experience even better! Please continue reading for all the details.

Improvements to RvR Itemization
We feel that it's important for players to be able to play RvR and PvE without missing out on appropriate loot for their level and career. Please see the post for more detail about our plans for bringing RvR loot into line with our goals: http://warherald.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=242

Loot Sparkles
We've continued to improve loot sparkles and have corrected one last small bug that caused corpses to sparkle even when you weren't able to loot them.

Pet User Interface
In the near future we'll be working to make sure the Pet UI stays up for as long as your pet does so that it doesn't on occasion disappear when you log out or zone. For now you can re-open the Pet UI window simply by summoning another pet.

Continued Improvements to Performance and Crash to Desktop Errors
Your ability to play the game smoothly is always our most important goal. We continue to work to apply fixes that will make your experience even more enjoyable. To help us out and make the experience better for you, be sure you have up-to-date drivers - including audio! Out of date video and audio drivers are among the highest contributors to game crashes.

“Ability Not Ready Yet”
We've recently improved ability responsiveness which will reduce the chance of you receiving the "Ability Not Ready Yet" message erroneously. This should help combat feel more natural!

Open RvR Ruleset Change
You've given us your feedback and we've listened! Open RvR servers will now allow you to play one tier below your current level without turning into a chicken. This will allow you more time to experience the PvE content of the first 3 tiers, and it also adds more danger to the mix.

Improved Graphics Options
We've got some great plans for improved graphics options as we continue through launch. Our number one priority is player performance. It's important in an RvR game for performance to be smooth and allow the game to be accessible to as many people as possible. In order to achieve our goals, we had to ensure a certain level of compatibility between devices. With all of the combinations and options available, we wanted to keep things simple and accessible to everyone.

With that in mind, we have a fix that may improve the ability of higher end machines to load textures, and we will continue to smooth out the process of the way textures load on your screen. In addition to this, we are exploring other options to add which will further enhance the graphics for mid to high range computers. For now, many users are able to turn on features such as anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering using their cards drivers.

This is just a sample of what's to come. We thank all of you for your enthusiastic participation in the Open Beta so far! We'll continue to monitor in-game and across all of our dedicated community forums for your feedback, and make your experience even better. Keep up the great work, have fun and prepare for WAR!

WAAAGH!!!
- The Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Team

[IInquisitor]

"You've given us your feedback and we've listened! Open RvR servers will now allow you to play one tier below your current level without turning into a chicken. This will allow you more time to experience the PvE content of the first 3 tiers, and it also adds more danger to the mix."


Intriguing. I hope this works out, open is very appealing to me but was waiting to hear word on their new take on it.

[Net]

Looks like we are going to have a nice and stable build for release.

[Pynda]

Improvements to RvR Itemization We feel that it's important for players to be able to play RvR and PvE without missing out on appropriate loot for their level and career. Please see the post for more detail about our plans for bringing RvR loot into line with our goals: http://warherald.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=242

Loot Sparkles
We've continued to improve loot sparkles and have corrected one last small bug that caused corpses to sparkle even when you weren't able to loot them.



Pet User Interface
In the near future we'll be working to make sure the Pet UI stays up for as long as your pet does so that it doesn't on occasion disappear when you log out or zone. For now you can re-open the Pet UI window simply by summoning another pet.


Continued Improvements to Performance and Crash to Desktop Errors
Your ability to play the game smoothly is always our most important goal. We continue to work to apply fixes that will make your experience even more enjoyable. To help us out and make the experience better for you, be sure you have up-to-date drivers - including audio! Out of date video and audio drivers are among the highest contributors to game crashes.


“Ability Not Ready Yet”
We've recently improved ability responsiveness which will reduce the chance of you receiving the "Ability Not Ready Yet" message erroneously. This should help combat feel more natural!


Open RvR Ruleset Change
You've given us your feedback and we've listened! Open RvR servers will now allow you to play one tier below your current level without turning into a chicken. This will allow you more time to experience the PvE content of the first 3 tiers, and it also adds more danger to the mix.

Improved Graphics Options
We've got some great plans for improved graphics options as we continue through launch. Our number one priority is player performance. It's important in an RvR game for performance to be smooth and allow the game to be accessible to as many people as possible. In order to achieve our goals, we had to ensure a certain level of compatibility between devices. With all of the combinations and options available, we wanted to keep things simple and accessible to everyone.
With that in mind, we have a fix that may improve the ability of higher end machines to load textures, and we will continue to smooth out the process of the way textures load on your screen. In addition to this, we are exploring other options to add which will further enhance the graphics for mid to high range computers. For now, many users are able to turn on features such as anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering using their cards drivers.


This is just a sample of what's to come. We thank all of you for your enthusiastic participation in the Open Beta so far! We'll continue to monitor in-game and across all of our dedicated community forums for your feedback, and make your experience even better. Keep up the great work, have fun and prepare for WAR!


WAAAGH!!! - The Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Team

[Daft]

Thank you for listening to the community Mythic. You are doing a great job, keep it up.

[Tarinis]

Very interesting changes. I like the change to the RVR npc's dropping loot.

[Concepts]

Very good news!

[randir14]

Good to see they're going to be addressing performance and graphics options. Something in the last patch really made the game run worse.

[nhlawguy]

Thank you for the update :)

[Red Asphalt]

What worries me a bit is the lack of any word about the "target is not attackable" bug.

It's a little better today than it was yesterday, but PQ guys still trigger it about one time out of ten and from what I saw today keep lords are still three for three going unattackable.

It's probably the single largest bug that's going to spoil the first impression of people, and they're really shooting themselves in the foot if it's not fixed for release.

[shznit]

we have a fix that may improve the ability of higher end machines to load texturesWTF? we may have a fix to improve? Why can't we with 512mb or greater cards just be able to load all textures at once? They aren't that high-res, absolutely no reason to reduce the LOD so much and so close to the player.

right now the textures look like its 1999.

[Jonesy]

^Yeah, 'target not attackable' and the extreme difficulty of targeting players (or anything, really) are my two main issues now. One is obviously a bug or server issue that seems likely to be hammered out, but the latter is really detracting from my enjoyment of the fast-paced PvP action. "I was trying to heal you, I swear!" Don't know if it has to do with the collision detection or what (models seem to take up more "space" on screen than they would appear to when trying to click on nearby models).

Haven't had a single CTD since they brought the servers up on Friday. Was getting them two or three times an hour back in CB and the first preview weekend, so that's been terrific.

[Selkaz]

They've really managed to turn this game into something great.

[Sifr]

With that in mind, we have a fix that may improve the ability of higher end machines to load textures, and we will continue to smooth out the process of the way textures load on your screen. In addition to this, we are exploring other options to add which will further enhance the graphics for mid to high range computers. For now, many users are able to turn on features such as anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering using their cards drivers.



Could we get some development input on the AA/AF issue? Nobody with an ATi-based card has been able to successfully use AA or AF in-game.

[Nikato]

I am glad they are listening. It really makes me happy that some of the things i've sent in (ability not ready yet) is being looked at. Makes me have high hopes for the game. :)

[stewie-Y]

Very nice imropvements here.

Although, 1 comment.
Open RvR Ruleset Change
You've given us your feedback and we've listened! Open RvR servers will now allow you to play one tier below your current level without turning into a chicken. This will allow you more time to experience the PvE content of the first 3 tiers, and it also adds more danger to the mix.

You may have been listening to the wrong people. I'm not sure how much I'm going to like being trampled as a level 7 by some level 20 who's bored and came to tier 1. I hope "Open-RvR" isn't just a code for "Gankfest", because if I read your statement correctly than that may be all that happens. Tier 2 guys will go down to tier 1 and gank the 1-11's, tier 3 guys will gank tier 2, etcetera.
I still like the idea of treating the higher tier guys that go down to any of the lower tiers exactly like they're treated them in Core servers, where they can do all the PvE they want but are chickenized on attacking an enemy/healing an ally.

Oh well. Good changes to the other things, I really am liking the improvements I've seen. I'm just hoping that it all works out well.:)

[MickeyFinn]

You cannot force AA/AF through the ATI control panel driver settings with WAR and make it work. This is usually the case when you set a game's in game AA/AF settings to on at a certain level then force them through the ATI controls. I am assuming there are some hidden video settings in game that are affecting this and causing AA/AF to not work in WAR. It works on the character selection screen then breaks once you are in game. There is no excuse not to have Anti-aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering options in the game's video settings at release. No game released these days does not have these options.

As it stands now, the game gives me a headache from all the shimmering textures and wavy jagged lines on the screen when I play. ATI has a huge market share and you are alienating all these people with ATI cards, especially with the new popular 4800 series cards that so many people are buying.

Even a pile of crap like age of conan had these options and so does wow of course. I've cancelled my preorder personally, until you get these settings implemented in the game. It's ridiculous that you should have to force them through driver settings, moreso that anyone with an ATI card cannot do this. Plus forcing AA/AF through driver settings generally offers lower performance than in game AA/AF settings.


Get these options in the game.

[Enter]

You cannot force AA/AF through the ATI control panel driver settings with WAR and make it work. This is usually the case when you set a game's in game AA/AF settings to on at a certain level then force them through the ATI controls. I am assuming there are some hidden video settings in game that are affecting this and causing AA/AF to not work in WAR. It works on the character selection screen then breaks once you are in game. There is no excuse not to have Anti-aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering options in the game's video settings at release. No game released these days does not have these options.

As it stands now, the game gives me a headache from all the shimmering textures and wavy jagged lines on the screen when I play. ATI has a huge market share and you are alienating all these people with ATI cards, especially with the new popular 4800 series cards that so many people are buying.

Even a pile of crap like age of conan had these options and so does wow of course. I've cancelled my preorder personally, until you get these settings implemented in the game. It's ridiculous that you should have to force them through driver settings, moreso that anyone with an ATI card cannot do this. Plus forcing AA/AF through driver settings generally offers lower performance than in game AA/AF settings.


Get these options in the game.

I honestly don't know why you typed all of that.

They're going to add the options. I don't mean to be a troll, but did you read the post? That's something they're working on, and I would be willing to bet that they will be in the release.

They simply said that some users could force AA/AF through the graphics card control panel, not that that is an acceptable means to do it.

[Sifr]

I honestly don't know why you typed all of that.

They're going to add the options. I don't mean to be a troll, but did you read the post? That's something they're working on, and I would be willing to bet that they will be in the release.

They simply said that some users could force AA/AF through the graphics card control panel, not that that is an acceptable means to do it.

i don't agree with the previous poster's tone, but he has a point: None of the folks with ATi cards can use AA or AF right now (or at release?). It just doesn't work in-game, regardless of driver settings.

The "some users" from the OP are "nVidia users".

[MickeyFinn]

I honestly don't know why you typed all of that.

They're going to add the options. I don't mean to be a troll, but did you read the post? That's something they're working on, and I would be willing to bet that they will be in the release.

They simply said that some users could force AA/AF through the graphics card control panel, not that that is an acceptable means to do it.

You're trolling really.

"We've got some great plans for improved graphics options as we continue through launch."

"For now, many users are able to turn on features such as anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering using their cards drivers."

Easy to infer right there they will not be in at launch. It's not the sort of thing you should be 'working on'. It's a given in any pc game. It should be there when the game is boxed and sold in a store. It makes a big difference to a lot of people, the game looks awful without it to me, and I'm sure many other people who spent money on a decent graphics card to be able to use options like AA/AF in game.

War is not a demanding game with a reasonably decent card. I have a 4870X2 and a 4870 in another computer, I cannot use AA/AF in War on either card, and every user out there with an ATI card can't.

It's very poor to not have these options available with the game, it's not the kind of thing you 'work on' and have to wait for, this is not in game content, it's a basic, standard option of any pc game.

Sure my tone is annoyed, I'm unable to play the game from it giving me a headache and eyestrain, I play on a 24" monitor, everything looks wavy and jagged, and the textures shimmer.

AA/AF settings are standard in pc games to reiterate it, it's the sort of thing I felt should be pushed for, not waited on to be implemented, if at all, down the road.

[Jaglavak]

Sounds great.

One question though. Why is this posted in the [US] Herald News and not in the News & Announcement? I guess - hope - this applies to the EU servers also or... ?

[SloppyG]

As posted by others - currently it is impossible to enable AA/AF beyond the character select screen for ati cards

Specifically my 4870x2
(tried catalyst 8.7-8.9betas), various settings etc.

AF/AA actually works on the login screen, once in the game I'm stuck with jaggies/poor texture filters and no ability to fix them.

I'm guessing the comment in the herald refers to the fact that nvidia can override application settings - so far this is not possible with catalyst (catalyst won't override programs that have a built in AA option that is set to off/0... from what I understand anyway).

Please Mythic - I know this issue doesn't take priority... But if I didn't have first hand knowledge that my 9800 (now in my htpc) could be running this thing in all it's splendor I wouldn't be bummed out about this....


</beg>

[loopgru]

How does implementing a change allowing level 21 players into starting areas without actually addressing any of the problems (for players who have hit cap and might not be focusing on leveling anymore, this still means no leveling assistance, no exploration-with-impunity, no ability to find lairs, tome unlocks, and easter eggs that you've missed, etc) amount to 'listening'? Unless there are a whole lot of dumb players out there, this seems like a pretty poor excuse for a bandaid.

[Telmorial]

I'd Just like to agree with the comments re the AA/AF problem with ATI Radeon cards. We force AA/AF with our drivers, it works in the character selection screen but not in the game. What a waste of a 4870X2.
But hey, it's not the end of the world but it would be nice if it was fix before/at release.

[spajdr]

AF works over here with Radeon 4850, AA only in menu and character screen.

[Candymancan]

From the From the Dev Team category we have: Open Beta Update
With that in mind, we have a fix that may improve the ability of higher end machines to load textures, and we will continue to smooth out the process of the way textures load on your screen. In addition to this, we are exploring other options to add which will further enhance the graphics for mid to high range computers. For now, many users are able to turn on features such as anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering using their cards drivers.

WAAAGH!!!
- The Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Team



Many users except all the ATI users, which cant get AA/AF working through drivers. What kinda game is released in this century that doesnt have AA/AF options in the graphical menu ? Seriously... You guys are losing me as a customer im not buying the pre-order thank god i only put down 1$


Spaj, AA/AF isnt working you just dont relise i bet take some Screen shots, i bet you a million dollers your AF isnt working and you just cant tell.

[logicalmayhem]

"Open RvR Ruleset Change

You've given us your feedback and we've listened! Open RvR servers will now allow you to play one tier below your current level without turning into a chicken. This will allow you more time to experience the PvE content of the first 3 tiers, and it also adds more danger to the mix."

Wait i just read this again.... this means teer 1 and 2 we will still be chickened all the time at 40 and it breaks low lvl balance....

this is stupid lol who ever is working on the rulsets is seriously drunk or somthing any of the examples i have offered up HERE (http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71652) are better than this.

Common mythic get it together.

[Clord]

Could we get some development input on the AA/AF issue? Nobody with an ATi-based card has been able to successfully use AA or AF in-game.

What are you talking about? My Radeon HD 3870 X2 card forces AA and AF in-game, successfully. Maybe problem is in certain ATI cards or card not support that feature so Catalyst Control Center don't enable that option.

[Mazari]

but still when you hit 40 your limited to T3+ areas ? [22-40] ? Or can you go 1 tier lower or is it only for level like ur 22 but still can do T2 and once your 40 you can only do t3+ ?

[Trickster]

WTF? we may have a fix to improve? Why can't we with 512mb or greater cards just be able to load all textures at once? They aren't that high-res, absolutely no reason to reduce the LOD so much and so close to the player.

right now the textures look like its 1999.

I absolutely agree. This is a joke really. I can live with piss poor WoW quality like graphics... a nice framerate is always cool. But ffs, how is it even remotely possible to come up with a game nowadays that actually looks worse than WoW? These blurry textures are so damn ugly that I first thought it's a bug.

[xxDrakaxx]

What are you talking about? My Radeon HD 3870 X2 card forces AA and AF in-game, successfully. Maybe problem is in certain ATI cards or card not support that feature so Catalyst Control Center don't enable that option.

Link some screenshots, cause i really can't accept , if it's true, that my 4870 can't and a 3870 instead can ...

[logicalmayhem]

I absolutely agree. This is a joke really. I can live with piss poor WoW quality like graphics... a nice framerate is always cool. But ffs, how is it even remotely possible to come up with a game nowadays that actually looks worse than WoW? These blurry textures are so damn ugly that I first thought it's a bug.

they should include 2 versions o textures so evryone is happy people with decent computers shouldnt suffer becouse of people not being able to run the game

[oettinger]

Many users except all the ATI users, which cant get AA/AF working through drivers. What kinda game is released in this century that doesnt have AA/AF options in the graphical menu ? Seriously... You guys are losing me as a customer im not buying the pre-order thank god i only put down 1$


Spaj, AA/AF isnt working you just dont relise i bet take some Screen shots, i bet you a million dollers your AF isnt working and you just cant tell.

Thank GOD you will not be playing, It is comments like this one that will turn this game into another Age of Conan. What good would the game be if we FORCE upgrades on people, and up all the specs just so a few "LEET" few will be happy, and play the game. MOST games are designed to cater to the masses, NOT the few.

That said, the "target not attackable", and the "Out of Range" bugs are much more gamebreaking than adding some graphics settings.

Im not sure about the "Open RVR" changes. Doesn't matter much to me. If I want to go back, and do all of the old content, and search for cool stuff, and whatnot, I will roll on a PVE server knowing the consequences of rolling on an OPEN server.

[Ninjagon]

Great changes, thanks you, especially the Open server rules.
If you are affraid of gankers, stay away from open servers and don't troll here.

I don't care about AA and AF now, hey its just OPEN BETA. I Am sure, that more graphics options will be available soon. There are more important things to fix/focus (stable servers, gameplay, head start,.. for example).

[sgtcasey]

It's always amusing watching people complain about *beta* software and say they're not going to buy or play the game on release because of issues during *beta*. (Key words there being *beta*.)

It's beta!!! It's not supposed to work very well. Your job is to help spot the bugs and get them fixed and offer suggestions. Very few people here will lose any sleep over the fact you say you're going to cancel your pre-order and not play the game. Just keep playing the *beta* and reporting any bugs you find.

Kudos to Mythic for addressing some of the more game-breaking bugs. Personally I find the 'target not attackable' problem quite annoying and I'm glad they're working on fixing it.

Making the game look really nice will come later once it's playable.

[Randomnation]

I understand the idea of letting higher levels go back a Tier to help friends or such.


But level 21 in T1 RvR zone just seems idiotic. I don't see how 2-shotting people 10 levels lower than you is 'fair' or 'fun'.

On the plus side.. it will help with Keep Lords which I hated trying to kill.

[Kaijin]

Improving RvR drops...No mention of the ridiculous idea of spreading gear throught your tier advancement. This post adresses RvR drop rates also not RvR itemization. This update doesn't address most RvRers concerns that have been beat like a dead horse on these forums. It is a half way decent consolation prize though considering it takes 2-3 times as many players to take a keep vs a PQ but it is a consolation prize not a fix.

[Kahine]

Thank you Mythic for the Open RvR changes, while I'd prefer no chicken mechanic at all on them this seems a reasonable compromise -

For those who are already whining about being killed by higher levels there's an easy solution , don't roll on Open RvR servers -

[Lunara]

What worries me a bit is the lack of any word about the "target is not attackable" bug.


That's because they've addressed it multiple times in other locations. It's something they're continuing to work on.

[Lunara]

Dear Mythic,

I think your game looks great, runs great, and plays great, and I deeply appreciate the fact that you have listened the the community regarding the issues listed in your most recent news release. I am an ATi user running an HD3870 and I think the game looks gorgeous. I am even more excited knowing that I'm not even seeing it at it's full potential yet!

I will be more than happy to wait, even a few months after release, for the AA/AF options to be added to the video settings menu if it means that we have a stable launch with less gameplay related bugs. And if it makes the game accessable to more players, thus improving the MMO market, which is good for fans and game makers alike, then I'm even more pleased with your decision to add the options at a later time. Eye-candy takes a back seat to performance, stability, and FUN!

Signed,

Pleased and Patient ATi User

[Kekmeister]

If ATI users didn't complain, Mythic wouldnt address this issue until the third expansion, thats why.

And yes, it is a big deal, just as the other crap everyone is complaining about, Mythic is doing a good job so far and i hope this issue is fixed at Head-Start, if not every ATI owner has 4/2 days to cancel their preorder.

[Brigog]

Alot of the changes look good yet a few dont. You guys mentioned the RvR Loot itemization however what you need to do is put the loot back into tiers like you had it while adding items people can get via PvE and PVP between tiers from NPC's and PQ's.

Also, the whole higher tiers being able to come back to lower ones sounds like a good idea in thought but your going to need to do something in order to balance it out. In Scenarios currently if your lvl 11 and there is a 21 in there...you get killed so fast it will make you head spin and he is nearly invinsible. now you saying there will be able to have lvl 29ish people agenst a lvl 11???? Thats got kids ruining good fun for people trying to play within the apporpeate level magins written all over it.

If you want to allow higher levels to come back you really need to create a system that will scale down their gear, hitpoints and damage to the highest level of that tier. Example being if your talking a T2 player wants to join in on T1 he will be scaled down to a lvl 11 and his damage will be that of a level 11's. You also going to create a problem where people of higher levels will be able to come back a tier and 1 group or 2 group keeps when they are intended for larger groups of people. All this and more will cause your loot itemization to be null and void because in T2 keepts T3 players can just farm loot all day consider its nearly guaranteed they will get +500 each kill.

[Brigog]

If ATI users didn't complain, Mythic wouldnt address this issue until the third expansion, thats why.

And yes, it is a big deal, just as the other crap everyone is complaining about, Mythic is doing a good job so far and i hope this issue is fixed at Head-Start, if not every ATI owner has 4/2 days to cancel their preorder.

Not to sound nieve or show any lack of understanding for your fusteration but they do know about your issues with ATI cards. However currently ATI is far in the minority as a much larger percentage of people have nvidia and I beleive they are trying to get it working right on that first. Now im not saying because your a minority we shouldnt work on yours rather I beleive they said they are going to be continueing to work on graphics which to me indicates they will get to you as soon as they can.

Graphics are a luxery of a game. Ultimate Online was a great game and had VERY bad graphics. This didnt matter because it created an interface where there was no lag and the gameplay was so great that people soon didnt care if the graphics were good because it was fun. I beleive warhammer is very similar in this way however they are planing to impove the graphics but you just need some patience.

[WebSpinr]

I must say, Mythic definitely deserves some ATTABOYs. Listening and keeping the public informed of direction and activities is always a solid approach to maintaining a happy community. Of course, it is our job to keep up the constuctive criticism because, in the end, it is us that benefits from improvements. Also, our support and understanding also helps the devs deliver to our expectations. We should avoid overhyping those things we would like to see and focus on those things that really make the game solid and enjoyable. Good progress!

[qqnoob]

very nice i just registered and got the email clickt on it and now i cant login keeps saying authentication failed omg next problem

[Fugazi]

Well hopefully we will see fix to blurred textures and broken animations on distance. If not... well I will just not buy game until it is fixed :)

If I would be the one of those who made textures and/or animations I would hell be pissed that my work cannot be seen on distance because of broken engine.

All being said I still hope it will be fixed before release - otherwise game will be bashed hard on that aspect, and rightfully so.

P.S. It is good to see on going improvements to combat. For me it is (finally) acceptable but it can still be much better.

[Brigog]

Well hopefully we will see fix to blurred textures and broken animations on distance. If not... well I will just not buy game until it is fixed :)

If I would be the one of those who made textures and/or animations I would hell be pissed that my work cannot be seen on distance because of broken engine.

All being said I still hope it will be fixed before release - otherwise game will be bashed hard on that aspect, and rightfully so.

P.S. It is good to see on going improvements to combat. For me it is (finally) acceptable but it can still be much better.

Haha, this one made me laugh. Bud this is BETA!!! Your supposed to inform them of issues so they may work on them. Not say... "I'm not going to buy this game till you fix this bug". If a small graphic error in a beta version of a game is going to prevent you from buying a game then please, move along and let us be.

I played DAoC for a long time and one thing I can tell you is Mythic doesn't just around. They are working very hard to make this release successful and as glitch free as possible. The top rated games currently out today all had HORID releases with TONS of bugs and glitches which didn't prevent the from being successful. I believe that Warhammer Online might actually have a fairly glitch free launch which is great but I say fairly because its impossible to predict what can happen when you have millions of users connecting to server with different configuration for each PC.

Mind you Mythic is a company that is working for us and we as users should direct the direction of what happens in the game to a large extent. I believe that they are doing a wonderful job thus far. The sheer lack of understanding of the time and work put into some of the smallest glitches or bugs in a game is mindblowing. I really think some people here need to sit back fill our the /bug reports properly and give them some time to fix the problems they reported. Just spaming crap about "omg im not going to buy your game till you make it perfect for ME" is grabage and does nothing.

Moral of the post! USE IN GAME BUG REPORTING!!! and give them fair time to evaluate if your problems/bug needs to be fixed and if so time to fix it.

[Sifr]

I believe we're approaching the point where "this is beta!" is no longer a valid excuse. Open Beta ends in 3 days. The game has already gone gold, meaning that Mythic considered what was in place at the time it went gold (last week?) was good enough to ship.

What we're playing now is what we'll be playing at launch. There will be no miracle patches, no huge additions of new features, menu options, or what-have-you.

Lack of working AA and AF isn't a minor graphical bug; they're a de facto standard in the industry. It's obvious the client can allow AA and AF, because nVidia users can use them successfully, and they even work for ATi users on the character selection/creation screens. But something in the client code is causing AA and AF to be disabled for ATi users, and that's more than a minor bug.

For some it's an annoyance. For others, it's a deal-breaker.

[nalgae]

I believe we're approaching the point where "this is beta!" is no longer a valid excuse. Open Beta ends in 3 days. The game has already gone gold, meaning that Mythic considered what was in place at the time it went gold (last week?) was good enough to ship.

What we're playing now is what we'll be playing at launch. There will be no miracle patches, no huge additions of new features, menu options, or what-have-you.

Lack of working AA and AF isn't a minor graphical bug; they're a de facto standard in the industry. It's obvious the client can allow AA and AF, because nVidia users can use them successfully, and they even work for ATi users on the character selection/creation screens. But something in the client code is causing AA and AF to be disabled for ATi users, and that's more than a minor bug.

For some it's an annoyance. For others, it's a deal-breaker.

You do realize they're patched two days into OB and are in the works for another patch within the next two days, right? Maybe I'm just amazed by Mythic after having tried out AoC for nearly 3 months, but at the pace they're patching, they'll at least be better than Funcom, which I guess isn't saying much.

Heck, there's even been a MAJOR gui overhaul in the span of two weeks: from PW to PW+. I have a nagging suspicion they have AA and AF options available in a build somewhere, but they don't want to release it for some strange reason.

[Sifr]

You do realize they're patched two days into OB and are in the works for another patch within the next two days, right? Maybe I'm just amazed by Mythic after having tried out AoC for nearly 3 months, but at the pace they're patching, they'll at least be better than Funcom, which I guess isn't saying much.

Heck, there's even been a MAJOR gui overhaul in the span of two weeks: from PW to PW+. I have a nagging suspicion they have AA and AF options available in a build somewhere, but they don't want to release it for some strange reason.


Well, let's wait a week and see who's right, then, shall we?

Sure, there will be patches. But I'm not holding my breath for AA and AF sliders mysteriously appearing in the next week, as some people seem to be.

[mjoedgaard]

Could we get some development input on the AA/AF issue? Nobody with an ATi-based card has been able to successfully use AA or AF in-game.

Im pretty sure thats because older ATI cards always have had problems with AA and AF.

[Ombrage]

You cannot force AA/AF through the ATI control panel driver settings with WAR and make it work. This is usually the case when you set a game's in game AA/AF settings to on at a certain level then force them through the ATI controls. I am assuming there are some hidden video settings in game that are affecting this and causing AA/AF to not work in WAR. It works on the character selection screen then breaks once you are in game. There is no excuse not to have Anti-aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering options in the game's video settings at release. No game released these days does not have these options.

As it stands now, the game gives me a headache from all the shimmering textures and wavy jagged lines on the screen when I play. ATI has a huge market share and you are alienating all these people with ATI cards, especially with the new popular 4800 series cards that so many people are buying.

Even a pile of crap like age of conan had these options and so does wow of course. I've cancelled my preorder personally, until you get these settings implemented in the game. It's ridiculous that you should have to force them through driver settings, moreso that anyone with an ATI card cannot do this. Plus forcing AA/AF through driver settings generally offers lower performance than in game AA/AF settings.


Get these options in the game.

Lol... If you cant does nt mean nobody can!

I have an ATI 4870 and did turn on AA and AF, and it did improve the ingame graphics, and a lot. So maybe, buy another card or go play Everquest 2.

[Gaugamela]

Well, i am not playing on Open RvR servers so those changes look reasonable for me. 2 Tiers below will still allow a lot of ganking in my opinion. I just think they should work on the chicken mechanic on that setting as soon as they have time after release. I would make higher rank players chickened when attacking and not when entering a zone - make the "entering in combat" work as an activator for the chicken. But it's more or less ok i guess.

As for the AA/AF. I think they should try to make things work with ATI as well as with Nvidia. It is very unfair to ATI users to have worse configuration just because they are ATI. However i understood that they will put those options available to everyone when they can.

It's ridiculous to see people threatening not to buy the game if those options aren't in at release. Heck, it's their loss. This is still Beta, and it is much better for them to take time to get those options in without messing with the game, than rush a buggy option that can cause instability to the game.

Now, everything that is missing is the targeting of enemies, and the"target is not attackable' bug.

Congratulations to Mythic for the great work they have been doing. The pace at which they are releasing fixes for the bugs/issues reported by the community is stunning. Never saw a company work with such passion and devotion, and listen to the future paying playerbase as much. you are spoiling the community with so much love, as you can see by the comments of some people in here.

[Sifr]

Im pretty sure thats because older ATI cards always have had problems with AA and AF.

Er, no. This is a problem with ALL ATi cards, up to and including the newest: x4870X2..

[Sifr]

Lol... If you cant does nt mean nobody can!

I have an ATI 4870 and did turn on AA and AF, and it did improve the ingame graphics, and a lot. So maybe, buy another card or go play Everquest 2.

I suspect you're not seeing what you think you're seeing. Perhaps it's confirmation bias, instead. Screenshot, please?

[Raistaran]

Totally agree with Gaugamela. In my opinion, if AA/AF not working on some cards is the biggest issue at launch, then I'd consider the WAR launch to be pretty dang successful. Anyone who's played an MMO at launch knows just how terrible they usually are - this would be a pretty minor issue in comparison.

[Ombrage]

I suspect you're not seeing what you think you're seeing. Perhaps it's confirmation bias, instead. Screenshot, please?

Well, no you start making me think... did i see what i saw?

im at work right now, so cant verify. I ll check out tonight and compare with my friend with is Geforce 8800gt. He did see and improvement... i though i did too...

so easy make someone believe he is wrong when he is away from the fact.... :rolleyes:

[Trickster]

You do realize they're patched two days into OB and are in the works for another patch within the next two days, right? Maybe I'm just amazed by Mythic after having tried out AoC for nearly 3 months, but at the pace they're patching, they'll at least be better than Funcom, which I guess isn't saying much.

Heck, there's even been a MAJOR gui overhaul in the span of two weeks: from PW to PW+. I have a nagging suspicion they have AA and AF options available in a build somewhere, but they don't want to release it for some strange reason.

YOU do realize that this is exactly what all the AoC fanbois said? "Oh Funcom, they are so great, they are patching so fast...". With all due respect, I really admire your optimism, but if I read of a "fix" that "may" help to get rid of the blurry textures I very much doubt that we'll see great improvements over the next few days. Didn't you learn anything from the AoC launch? Miracle clients and huge game improvements belong to the world of beta fairytales. What we see now is probably more or less what we'll get... I mean honestly, it's not even four days till launch and these guys are still working on the overall graphical quality of the game?
Same goes for the chicken mechanic... wow, suddenly Mythic realizes that the idea was crap and then comes with a solution which is even more crap... now I'm really confident that these guys know what they are doing. I'm sure it was the first time in open beta that someone told them that the chicken is utter bs...
These are all things which were critised countless times during closed beta... All this stuff should already be fixed. Ah wait, sorry I forgot... to realize that you actually have to read the official closed beta forums. But I guess official forums are just not Mythic's thing.

[Sifr]

Well, no you start making me think... did i see what i saw?

im at work right now, so cant verify. I ll check out tonight and compare with my friend with is Geforce 8800gt. He did see and improvement... i though i did too...

so easy make someone believe he is wrong when he is away from the fact.... :rolleyes:


The surest way to determine if it's on is to log into the game, then start looking for jagged diagonal lines. If you see them, it's not on. :)

[nalgae]

YOU do realize that this is exactly what all the AoC fanbois said? "Oh Funcom, they are so great, they are patching so fast...". With all due respect, I really admire your optimism, but if I read of a "fix" that "may" help to get rid of the blurry textures I very much doubt that we'll see great improvements over the next few days. Didn't you learn anything from the AoC launch? Miracle clients and huge game improvements belong to the world of beta fairytales. What we see now is probably more or less what we'll get... I mean honestly, it's not even four days till launch and these guys are still working on the overall graphical quality of the game?
Same goes for the chicken mechanic... wow, suddenly Mythic realizes that the idea was crap and then comes with a solution which is even more crap... now I'm really confident that these guys know what they are doing. I'm sure it was the first time in open beta that someone told them that the chicken is utter bs...
These are all things which were critised countless times during closed beta... All this stuff should already be fixed. Ah wait, sorry I forgot... to realize that you actually have to read the official closed beta forums. But I guess official forums are just not Mythic's thing.

Uh, Funcom never, ever patched their open beta. Mythic patched in OB TWO DAYS after it started. Just a simple statement of the facts.

Funcom even removed features after launch. Heh.

[Trickster]

Uh, Funcom never, ever patched. Not in their open beta. They didn't patch until weeks after launch and it was weeks between every patch. Mythic patched in OB TWO DAYS after it started. Just a simple statement of the facts.

They patched pretty excessively during the early access... believe you me... I was there and barely survied it.

[nalgae]

They patched pretty excessively during the early access... believe you me... I was there and barely survied it.

Edited for clarity. But seriously, would you call them patches when the notes were basically small fixes and this kind of stuff:

Spellweaving
* Spellweaving has been temporarily disabled for Tempest of Set due to a recent bug.

GUI

Changed the chat colors to be more like what players are used from other games.
The guild chat text is now green
Removed the DirectX 10 option from the option panel.
Removed the 'Remove from Spellbook' functionality

[Brigog]

We are entering a sad era of players when newer generations believe what happens at launch is final. Everquest 1 was a disaster at launch and Sony/Verient fixed them and turned it into a wonderful game. WoW had Tons of bugs at release and Blizzard fixed those. Thats two of the largest names in MMO's that are currently active. To use Funcom as an excuse of a game that could have been great but wasn't due to lack of content/patches is a mistake. Give Mythic some credit due to how they have DAoC which has been out for a long time and even with it being so old they CONTINUE to update it.

[Anjeel]

this is a response to the update.

I love most of the changes except for the chickening only going to two tiers below. The problem lies in the fact that the "open rvr" ruleset is more closed off than the "core" set. The bolster buff was a great idea and should have stayed as is on core. Its helps the new characters get into the action early. As for the chicken, I think it should be completely removed for the open rvr ruleset or changed to a specific penalty for attacking a player x amount of levels below you if it has to stay in. There are lots of tome unlocks early in the game and penalizing someone for not getting the immediately in their character's career is kind of lame.

[Trickster]

Edited for clarity. But seriously, would you call them patches when the notes were basically small fixes and this kind of stuff:

Spellweaving
* Spellweaving has been temporarily disabled for Tempest of Set due to a recent bug.


GUI

Changed the chat colors to be more like what players are used from other games.
The guild chat text is now green
Removed the DirectX 10 option from the option panel.
Removed the 'Remove from Spellbook' functionality


Maybe you should check all the patches from the EA and the week after. They did more then just remove a few sliders (check the notes from the 22, you'll see they patched pretty much everything, quests, npcs, classes, you name it). You know... and I really don't want to offend anyone... but people are really a bit stupid when it comes to MMOs and patching. If a company patches a lot they all go "uhhh, ahhh, great company, they patch so fast".

Since when is excessive patching shortly before or shortly after a game was released a sign of quality? It only means that there is still a lot of stuff broken. I mean... of course it's better to patch than to leave things broken... but hey, after all they want to sell a product here.

Don't get me wrong, I really don't want to bash Mythic here. I think most of the people there are quite sympathetic and I really hope that their game will become a success. But I'm simply getting the impression that in the end I'll have to pay to play beta... oh wait, I already did that when I preordered.

[WebSpinr]

Don't get me wrong, I really don't want to bash Mythic here. I think most of the people there are quite sympathetic and I really hope that their game will become a success. But I'm simply getting the impression that in the end I'll have to pay to play beta... oh wait, I already did that when I preordered.

What really irked me with AoC is I felt like I was paying monthly for a beta product three months after release. At least with preorder, you can spend the few dollars to get a feel for the game's maturity before you dish out that monthly expense or walk away with no regrets.

[MickeyFinn]

Not having AA/AF sliders in graphics options at launch is a huge mistake and glaring example of lack of foresight and just general good sense. This has nothing to do with making the game run for everyone, this allows everyone to have the choice to run the game at the settings they want. *NO* game released today does not have these options, except for console ports.

You can discuss other MMOs all you want, guess what, every one of them had these options when the game was released. Even though it works for nvidia users, you should not have to set these options in your drivers, it should be in the game.

How on earth can they not have thought to put these options in the game ? It's bizarre. And ATI has a huge install base these days, because the 4800 series is an incredible card. And AA/AF does not work for any ATI user, even the ones that think it does, who obviously just don't know what they are talking about.

It is a deal breaker and a good reason to cancel, because it is a basic, expected function that any blasted pc game released these days has, yet this game does not. The game is great I really like it. But this is unacceptable so I cancelled. This is a video game, don't think the graphics are something that just don't matter. Believe me, the game must of had a huge art department and team dedicated to coming up with their own art style and then designing the look of everything. Visuals are a huge part to any video game.

Not having AA/AF controls at launch is ridiculous. I won't pay for this game till it has it. The sad part is there are hidden options within the game's engine somewhere that do define AA and AF settings, likely at 0 or off. This is the only condition under which ATI hardware cannot force AA/AF through drivers. They just need to turn this off, or give you the option to turn the hidden settings off, and then we can force it on. But regardless, they need to just have the options within the game.

[nalgae]

Maybe you should check all the patches from the EA and the week after. They did more then just remove a few sliders (check the notes from the 22, you'll see they patched pretty much everything, quests, npcs, classes, you name it). You know... and I really don't want to offend anyone... but people are really a bit stupid when it comes to MMOs and patching. If a company patches a lot they all go "uhhh, ahhh, great company, they patch so fast".

Since when is excessive patching shortly before or shortly after a game was released a sign of quality? It only means that there is still a lot of stuff broken. I mean... of course it's better to patch than to leave things broken... but hey, after all they want to sell a product here.

Don't get me wrong, I really don't want to bash Mythic here. I think most of the people there are quite sympathetic and I really hope that their game will become a success. But I'm simply getting the impression that in the end I'll have to pay to play beta... oh wait, I already did that when I preordered.

I guess the reason I'm so gung-ho about Mythic is that this game, right now, in the open beta stage, is more finished than AoC is RIGHT NOW.

I admit. Frequent patches are not a sign of a good game. For AoC, it was a sign of a bad game. But in its current state, Warhammer is already better and bug-free than AoC is right now, and Mythic still manages to patch things quickly.

[Trickster]

I guess the reason I'm so gung-ho about Mythic is that this game, right now, in the open beta stage, is more finished than AoC is RIGHT NOW.

I admit. Frequent patches are not a sign of a good game. For AoC, it was a sign of a bad game. But in its current state, Warhammer is already better and bug-free than AoC is right now, and Mythic still manages to patch things quickly.

Yeah well, I won't deny that... and I definately don't want to compare WAR directly with AoC. WAR certainly has more content than AoC had at launch. It will be interesting to see how fast Mythic will be when it comes to delivering all the content they cut out (*cough* four capital cities *cough*). They might have a look at Turbine. Lotro isn't exactly my cup of tea, but these guys are not doing a bad job in that particular area.

[iniside]

One thing to focus.
Graphics Engine Optimalization. Say it. It's very bad now.
Graphics now compeltly doo not explain low performance of engine. It's really no point to lower graphics settings. Engine just has to be optimized.

[Gaugamela]

Yeah well, I won't deny that... and I definately don't want to compare WAR directly with AoC. WAR certainly has more content than AoC had at launch. It will be interesting to see how fast Mythic will be when it comes to delivering all the content they cut out (*cough* four capital cities *cough*). They might have a look at Turbine. Lotro isn't exactly my cup of tea, but these guys are not doing a bad job in that particular area.

You got to have in account what they are patching right now on WAR. They are mostly fixing a couple of bugs and fine tuning some aspects of the game. Nearly all the features they prmised to include in the game at release are in. They just cut some content that they will release later.

AoC didn't do that. They released a crapload of unfinished content and didn't launched with all the features they promised.

[theod3]

No one can say that AA/AF sliders wont be in at launch cause launch aint here yet. So saying "not having this in at launch is a travesty!" is premature. Heck a month ago there were no graphic sliders in beta. Everything was on low settings. They have been gradually optimizing the game for more and more powerful machines, they just wanted to make sure the average joe is taken care of first which I believe theyve done, so Im sure those features will be forthcoming very soon.

[Soundblaster]

3 things that will make this game more lasting:

1.Better transportation : 5-10 minutes to get back to the area you died in or different towns , not so fun.

2. A main character that can be used on multi servers ( in case your friends are ona server that is full with a long wait.)

3. Better damage control , is it just me or does anyone else go in areas ans all sudden players appear from now where and you die instantly??

[Zappy]

This thread makes me smile. The game is in good shape!

3 things that will make this game more lasting:

1.Better transportation : 5-10 minutes to get back to the area you died in or different towns , not so fun.

2. A main character that can be used on multi servers ( in case your friends are ona server that is full with a long wait.)

3. Less crashes to desktop..

1. I havent experienced too long runs really. Wow is much worse. Also you get a horse at 20.

2. Playing with friends is a must for fun, but I dunno about one character being able to move freely. I guess free server transfer (say once a week\month max) would kick .

3. Obviously. :)


edit: anyone noticed that posts with numbers in them makes you wanna answer? :P

[Sedina]

AoC didn't do that. They released a crapload of unfinished content and didn't launched with all the features they promised.

I have a strong feeling AoC only did proper testing from levels 1-20, the rest was all garbage after tourtauge. buggy mobs, buggy zones, just bugs galore. 1-20 was great though, after that it went downhill fast!

[Wolfangel]

Great game, great feedback Mythic.

[Dargor]

Improved Graphics Options for teh utmost win. Can't wait to check out how full AA and AF looks like in the game.

- Daniel

[Rizznath Bloodstar]

I personally suspect inhumane issues here. There is only one explanation for the fast updating and patching....

The Hickman is force feeding the devs high amounts of guarana while whipping them to go faster. Meanwhile Josh and Paul bang on a drum to help them all keep pace.

Mythic is evil. My opinion anyway.

[Gemi]

Great stuff coming, I see. What seems to be lacking though is any comments on the "Target is not attackable" and "Out of range" problems with a lot of enemies. These are really causing some irritation in tighter spots.

[shznit]

Improved Graphics Options for teh utmost win. Can't wait to check out how full AA and AF looks like in the game.

- Daniel
AA looks wonderful, AF doesn't seem to do anything outdoors outsite about a 10-15 yard radius from your character, the game's crazy texture lod system takes over and it all becomes a blurry mess. A 128x128 texture looks like crap no matter how much you filter it. Vertical textures such as hills or rock walls look like its 1999.

At least they got the widescreen FOV right which is more than I can say for Blizzard.

[vand3l]

So, thats the balanced gameplay on open servers out the window. Now its no different than games like World of Warcraft, where you cant level as everytime you step out of the camp your ganked by people you have zero way of beating. And you dont even get buffed on open servers, so thats now a level 20 beating on a level 2.

You know, just because bully boy players shout loudly, really doesnt mean its the best game play plan guys.

[madiusmax]

Not having AA/AF sliders in graphics options at launch is a huge mistake and glaring example of lack of foresight and just general good sense. This has nothing to do with making the game run for everyone, this allows everyone to have the choice to run the game at the settings they want. *NO* game released today does not have these options, except for console ports.

You can discuss other MMOs all you want, guess what, every one of them had these options when the game was released. Even though it works for nvidia users, you should not have to set these options in your drivers, it should be in the game.

How on earth can they not have thought to put these options in the game ? It's bizarre. And ATI has a huge install base these days, because the 4800 series is an incredible card. And AA/AF does not work for any ATI user, even the ones that think it does, who obviously just don't know what they are talking about.

It is a deal breaker and a good reason to cancel, because it is a basic, expected function that any blasted pc game released these days has, yet this game does not. The game is great I really like it. But this is unacceptable so I cancelled. This is a video game, don't think the graphics are something that just don't matter. Believe me, the game must of had a huge art department and team dedicated to coming up with their own art style and then designing the look of everything. Visuals are a huge part to any video game.

Not having AA/AF controls at launch is ridiculous. I won't pay for this game till it has it. The sad part is there are hidden options within the game's engine somewhere that do define AA and AF settings, likely at 0 or off. This is the only condition under which ATI hardware cannot force AA/AF through drivers. They just need to turn this off, or give you the option to turn the hidden settings off, and then we can force it on. But regardless, they need to just have the options within the game.

Give it up already, cancel the game, leave the forums, and we'll see you later.

Great updates so far, and looking forward to what the game is and will become.

[Graugrimm]

I honestly don't get the complaints about graphics currently. Yes, they could improve and a few times some trees are not just somewhat blurred, they've consisted of a few ugly blobs only. However, 99% of the time when I'm playing now I don't even notice the blurring. Furthermore, logging back into WoW I must say that I perceive the current WAR graphics to be clearly superior.

That said, I've spent most time in the Greenskin, Chaos and Empire area and the color setting and models there make a better impression on me than the other areas. Both elf areas especially seem more bland. The elf models (coming from someone who generally dislike elfs in any game) are so far the least impressive, with few things really making them stand out.

I agree on sliders for settings but some animation bugs, targeting (as others have said, as a healer it is a pain, for example in a tight bunch around a PQ boss or flag in Scenarios) and attackable mobs (never happened to me but friends to mention it quite often) have higher prio imo.

Overall though, the game feels really polished and I'm truly having a blast. I am one of those arguing that any new MMO today must compete with that on the market (read WoW). Talking about releases, problems etc might be true, but consumers are not that forgiving. Some things need to be ironed out therefore, but WAR is very close to that level when I'm running it.

Lastly, comparing it to AoC is just not fair if you ask me. From go everything was poor in that game. Just mentioning them in the same sentence is tarnishing WAR. Even the graphics in AoC - taking a really great base engine into account - turned bland quickly for me due to lack of color contrasts plus the similarity in models. Taking that into account, the overall graphics (including concept) in WAR are a lot more appealing to me than in AoC.

[shznit]

I honestly don't get the complaints about graphics currently. Yes, they could improve and a few times some trees are not just somewhat blurred, they've consisted of a few ugly blobs only. However, 99% of the time when I'm playing now I don't even notice the blurring. Furthermore, logging back into WoW I must say that I perceive the current WAR graphics to be clearly superior.
I think you are misunderstanding us. The graphics are really good, model detail is light years beyond wow, the world looks great, UI is slick, framerate is good (very cpu limited tho), everything is pretty much money except the texture blurring.

Forcing AF does absolutely nothing, the game is reducing texture detail for no reason, it reminds me of playing Mass Effect on Xbox with higher res textures replacing crappy placeholders as you get closer and it looks terrible, killing the mood set by the otherwise awesome work they did. It kinda sad because most of the ground textures look great up close but they don't get a chance to shine because of the blurring.

512mb cards are mainstream now and there is no reason why we can't load the highest res textutes all at once (maybe LOD them like 200yds away but right now they pop in at like 15!), the game does not need to be downsampling this badly. We need an option to prevent this from happening and we need AF (forced or ingame) to work (yes I have Nvidia, AA works when forced but AF doesn't).

When I first saw this I was convinced it was a bug, I'm still having trouble believing that it was intentional and have no idea how many of you just can't see it.

[Danath]

I'll just post what I had to say on graphics in my review/impression thread.

Honestly, as soon as I entered the game I felt disappointed. It all seemed...unfinished, if you get what I mean. The graphics is detailed on buildings mostly, lighting/shadowing is great but other than that there are all low-resolution textures (and this at 1920x1200 with maximum forced AA+FSAA with a Q6600, 4GB, HD 3870), a lot of pop-in and just average draw distance, not to mention the absence of bloom/hdr to further smooth the apperance of the world. Yes, I'm going to say it - whilst Warhammer certainly has a superior engine, World of Warcraft has an edge on the overall visual impact and this due to the huge implementation of filters and the far better graphics customization given to the user. I had everything maxed out in WoW with tweaks and LOD turned off and it is still an appealing sight, even four years later its launch. Sometimes Warhammer Online manages to show its superior subtle details, but the moment later you're going down a terribly rendered low-resolution terrain and that's why you have all those "graphics is horrible" threads.
Where World of Warcraft really shines, though, is in the animations. World of Warcraft has undoubtedly the best animations in the genre, and I've never seen a successful and funny game who has crappy animations; they are simply vital for gameplay purposes.
Granted, Warhammer Online's animations are not crappy, but they are mediocre on average and this packed with the lack of cool and unique skill/spell graphic effects makes it really hard for a player to notice differences between his/her skills/spells. Smoothing animations is therefore an absolute need to both improve combat appeal and to enhance the uniqueness of players abilities together with better graphic effects.

Mythic absolutely needs to improve:

-Video customization options: terrain distance, terrain textures, overall game textures, bloom/hdr at the very least are needed.
-Animations' smoothness and overall graphic effects.Smoother animations mean smoother and more appealing combat; graphic effects make for spells/skills and classes uniqueness, other than visual appeal. A lot of people will dismiss the game in its current form as uglier than World of Warcraft at first sight and avoid trying the game at all. And whilst your first reaction may well be "Who cares?", sadly we all know that hardcore gamers aren't simply enough the make any game a success anymore, MMORPGs even more than other genres. Besides, we would all benefit from these fixes/additions. Let's just hope Mythic wants to make them at all.

[Trickster]

I honestly don't get the complaints about graphics currently. Yes, they could improve and a few times some trees are not just somewhat blurred, they've consisted of a few ugly blobs only. However, 99% of the time when I'm playing now I don't even notice the blurring. Furthermore, logging back into WoW I must say that I perceive the current WAR graphics to be clearly superior.


Well, I can only speak for myself, but I don't have anything against the graphics per se. What bugs me tremendously are the blurry textures just a few paces away from my avatar. I'm usually not someone who needs awsome graphics (I like the graphics in WoW... how stupid is that?) - it's this very specific effect (or feature) that totally screws up the fun for me. I cannot tell you why this is so... I just feel this way. I hated this blurring in Lotro, where it was only used with textures that are very far away, and I hate it even more in WAR, because sometimes the effect occurs so damn close to my avatar. In some cases my avatar was really just a few paces away from a wall or environmental obstacle that was completly blurred and looked utterly unnatural. The system in itself is simply a bad idea in my opinion. I can see why developers are using it, but to me it feels out of place... not natural. You are right - WAR's graphics are superior. Nonetheless I'd take WoW graphics over those of WAR anytime simply because WoW does not make use of this horrible blurring effect. You might not notice the blurring at all while playing - I see it all the time... I cannot help it.

If it comes to the lack of graphical options/sliders/whatever I can only say that I consider it a matter of "first impression". As Mythic said themselves - this is the first time that a rather huge amount of potential costomers will be able to experience the game. So for me it's not quite understandable why they come up with such a rudimentary graphical options interface. I mean... imagine you have a job interview and you show up there being naked. It doesn't really say anything about your abilities or if you're suited to do the job, but if I should guess I'd say they won't take you. Here it's pretty much the same. Mythic wants to sell a lot of copies and make some money, right? The first impression counts... not only in this particular case.

[shznit]

wrong thread sorry, don't see a delete option.