Empire Opening Zone Quests

[Vikingkingq]

"The starting area in Nordwind in under attack by Chaos marauders, and our first task was to raise an army from among the farmers and counter attack. As our 30 minutes in Nordwind progressed, we executed traitorous farmers who turned towards Chaos, returned fire on the Hellcannons bombarding the city, freed and healed captured soldiers, and progressed toward the ultimate goal of progressing the public quest to slaying the Chaos giant that was spotted wondering the area."
- not sure which this is from.

"The early PvE we had a chance to experience was quite polished and easy to navigate. Within seconds of starting up as a Bright Wizard, I had a few spells and was off doing quests that felt a touch more organic than those of most games. The town in which I lived was being attacked by forces of Chaos and several buildings had been set ablaze. I had to run to fetch people out of the fire (by right clicking on them) and get them to safety. Simple, but it got me going.

The quests organically moved me around the zone as the tasks got more complex. In another, I was sent into the fields to recruit farmers to defend the city. Sometimes when I clicked on a farmer, he would put some armor on and join the fight (helping me achieve my goal). Other times he would reveal himself as a sympathizer of Chaos and take arms against me. Minutes later I was firing cannons at my enemies, sabotaging the enemy siege and even sneaking into the woods to rescue injured NPCs from invaders."
-from Warcry article

Some initial thoughts:

- first of all, I love how the quests come together to tell a story that emphasizes big themes about the race. In this case, it's all about humans trying to work together to defeat a much more powerful threat through organization, the desire to save v. the desire to kill, the danger of internal corruption and the necessity of total mobilization, the David and Goliath mentality, the besieged mentality.

- second, there is some repitition. Giants? Check. Cannons? Check. This is something Mythic needs to be careful about, so as not to ruin replayability. I can't tell you how often in WoW I've stopped a new toon because I realize I'm doing the same quests with different text.

[Guivert]

It sounds like they manage to solidify the 'theme' of each faction very quickly in the starter zones. That's really great, and very important for character immersion.

I noticed that the cannons and the giants seemed to be repeating from stuff we've already heard about, too. Hopefully, those encounters are different enough, though. The Chaos are shooting their Hellcannon at one specific tower, for instance, while the Empire aims for some of the attacking barbarians. So that seems different enough.

And the Chaos giant doesn't seem to be unleashed by the Chaos players like the giant in the newbie Greenskin/dwarf zone is. So maybe that's a whole different encounter, too. And there's gotta be plenty of giants around. Might as well fight 'em right off the bat as a hefty introduction.

That's way better than fighting rats, or wolves, or what have you.

[Wulfen]

It's Nordland, not Nordwind.
However, I think that at this point of the project any rumour about quests have to be analyzed grano salis. It's really too early to speak about quests' contents.

[Vikingkingq]

It's Nordland, not Nordwind.
However, I think that at this point of the project any rumour about quests have to be analyzed grano salis. It's really too early to speak about quests' contents.

Yeah, I noticed that. However, it's not rumor. It's from the Press Event where they got to play through the opening zone.

[partyatdrakenhoff]

[quote=Wulfen;226878]It's Nordland, not Nordwind.

No, from what i've read so far the name of the village is Nordwind as opposed to Nordland which is an Empire state. Its pretty likely, given its name and the proxiety of Nordland to the Norse lands and the sea of claws that the Empire starting zone, the town of Nordwind is in Nordland

[Ralzar]

- second, there is some repitition. Giants? Check. Cannons? Check. This is something Mythic needs to be careful about, so as not to ruin replayability. I can't tell you how often in WoW I've stopped a new toon because I realize I'm doing the same quests with different text.

It's still pretty different though. The chaos starting zone has you fiering the hellcannons. While the Empire zone has you under fire by Hellcanons.
And as a Greenskin, you help a giant, while as an Imperial you fight a giant (chaos giant btw. It's not just the same exact giant).

[Seldaren]

No, from what i've read so far the name of the village is Nordwind as opposed to Nordland which is an Empire state. Its pretty likely, given its name and the proxiety of Nordland to the Norse lands and the sea of claws that the Empire starting zone, the town of Nordwind is in Nordland

Looking at the map of Nordland:
http://www.warhammeronline.com/english/gameInfo/zoneOverviews/Nordland/images/Nordlandmap.jpg

There's no Nordwind.
The description of Nordland talks about the villages of Neues Emskrank and Grimmenhagen. And on the map you can see Salzenmund.

Nordwind is most likely a mistake by the guy writing the article.

Seldaren

[Zandalar]

"The starting area in Nordwind in under attack by Chaos marauders, and our first task was to raise an army from among the farmers and counter attack. As our 30 minutes in Nordwind progressed, we executed traitorous farmers who turned towards Chaos, returned fire on the Hellcannons bombarding the city, freed and healed captured soldiers, and progressed toward the ultimate goal of progressing the public quest to slaying the Chaos giant that was spotted wondering the area."
- not sure which this is from.

"The early PvE we had a chance to experience was quite polished and easy to navigate. Within seconds of starting up as a Bright Wizard, I had a few spells and was off doing quests that felt a touch more organic than those of most games. The town in which I lived was being attacked by forces of Chaos and several buildings had been set ablaze. I had to run to fetch people out of the fire (by right clicking on them) and get them to safety. Simple, but it got me going.

The quests organically moved me around the zone as the tasks got more complex. In another, I was sent into the fields to recruit farmers to defend the city. Sometimes when I clicked on a farmer, he would put some armor on and join the fight (helping me achieve my goal). Other times he would reveal himself as a sympathizer of Chaos and take arms against me. Minutes later I was firing cannons at my enemies, sabotaging the enemy siege and even sneaking into the woods to rescue injured NPCs from invaders."
-from Warcry article

Some initial thoughts:

- first of all, I love how the quests come together to tell a story that emphasizes big themes about the race. In this case, it's all about humans trying to work together to defeat a much more powerful threat through organization, the desire to save v. the desire to kill, the danger of internal corruption and the necessity of total mobilization, the David and Goliath mentality, the besieged mentality.

- second, there is some repitition. Giants? Check. Cannons? Check. This is something Mythic needs to be careful about, so as not to ruin replayability. I can't tell you how often in WoW I've stopped a new toon because I realize I'm doing the same quests with different text.
wow that is so awsome i like how they intergrated the quests with the theme and story so well, thnx for sharing that.

[Pirkel]

- second, there is some repitition. Giants? Check. Cannons? Check. This is something Mythic needs to be careful about, so as not to ruin replayability. I can't tell you how often in WoW I've stopped a new toon because I realize I'm doing the same quests with different text.

Did you ever read a couple of Warhammer novels? Did you ever play a couple of Warhammer tabletop battles?

How is it Mythics fault that through sticking close to the lore they will have to re-use certain themes a lot.

[Vikingkingq]

Did you ever read a couple of Warhammer novels? Did you ever play a couple of Warhammer tabletop battles?

How is it Mythics fault that through sticking close to the lore they will have to re-use certain themes a lot.

Yes, and yes. However, sticking to the lore doesn't mean that you have to repeat the giant/cannon theme.

[Boulvae]

The giant/cannon theme is different. Greenskins help the giants, cause well lets face it those guys are the only thing thats considered a true greenskin ally.

The empire is fighting a CHAOS giant, due to the fact that chaos is tainting the land a giant was just there at the wrong time. The chaos and empire both involve cannons cause there the exact opposite of each other see? Chaos kills the village, the village defeneds itself. The chaos fire the cannons, the empire takes it while firing there own personal cannons at chaos. On the outside it's your basic assault/raid, with man at arms/defending there arses. But on the inside the experiance of the two is different enough that it's cool and I think that after that the quests won't be the same thing with just a few different words.

[quacktar]

I think I remember hearing that grimmenhagen was the starter town for empire.

[Stuntie]

Scene setting is so important for a game. Grab them in the first 5 mins and you have them. This seems like so much more than ye old grab a sword and whack 10 rats/spiders/slugs or whatever. And helping people escape buring building, recruiting them etc. Excellent ways to build the feeling. I have played so many lifeless bland starting zones divorced from any sense of purpose that this really excites me.

[Ralzar]

Do we have any detailed info about the starting zone quests for Orcs and Dwarf?

I just realized that allthough we've had some info, it was never as detailed as what we've gotten for Empire and Chaos.

I remember that the orcs have dwarf attacking by coming down a waterfall in barrels. And they have the Public Quest of Killing Squigs and Bringing Beer to the giant.

What do Dwarfs have?

[Vikingkingq]

Do we have any detailed info about the starting zone quests for Orcs and Dwarf?

I just realized that allthough we've had some info, it was never as detailed as what we've gotten for Empire and Chaos.

I remember that the orcs have dwarf attacking by coming down a waterfall in barrels. And they have the Public Quest of Killing Squigs and Bringing Beer to the giant.

What do Dwarfs have?

We know about the giving of beer to wounded dwarfs.

[Seldaren]

Do we have any detailed info about the starting zone quests for Orcs and Dwarf?

Here are the quests I recall doing at E3:

Public Quest: Kill Annoying Squigs.
- giant being chased by Squigs, kill 25 of them.

Public Quest: Give Giant Beer.
- part two of PQ. Run around and find beer to give to Giant.

Quest: Kill vultures, get dwarf beard.
- are a bunch of vultures at a battlefield nearby, they're eating the dead dwarfs. Kill the vultures, and take dwarf beards.

Quest: defeat Orc Brawler
- one on one fight with an Orc Brawler in a little cage thing

Quest: Dwarf in a Barrel
- Dwarfs have come over the falls in barrels. Go to the river and open the barrels and kill the Dwarfs.

Quest: Gather Wood
- wood is needed for siege machines, run around and find some (this might be a Public Quest, I don't remember exactly)

Those are all the ones I can remember. And they are all literally lvl1-3 quests, so they're rather simple as you can see. They also could well have been changed by now too.

Seldaren

[Ralzar]

Wow, I sorta knew about all those quests, but haven't seen them collected in a list like that. That's quite an interesting start for orc players.



Quest: Gather Wood
- wood is needed for siege machines, run around and find some (this might be a Public Quest, I don't remember exactly)


My bet is on it being a PQ. Sounds like the "Gather Wood - Dryads Attack - Treeman Attacks" Public Quest I've heard mentioned a few times.

[Fusko]

Yeah, looking at these quests gets me really excited about Warhammer Online. I mean, I played WoW and you start out killing boars with a rusty knife... I don't mean to bash WoW, but compare the quests with each other.

[Kharyon]

I think the idea with the slight quest repetition is to foster a bit of the RvR feel early, as completing the quests (giant/cannon) seems to be counter productive to the opposing faction quests, this may not be the case but it is decent for immersion none-the-less.