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Warhammer Online Open Beta To Begin September 7th
Mythic Entertainment has announced that the open beta for the long anticipated Warhammer Online will begin on September 7th, eleven days before the finished game goes live on September 18th. We've previously discussed WAR's delays and the content cuts involved in reaching this deadline. In the meantime, Mythic's Road to WAR website (which we talked about earlier this month) is still available. The press release notes, "Players can get into the North American open beta by pre-ordering Warhammer Online from select retail partners."
This isn't going to be a disastrous release at all is it! 11 day open beta? With half the content now removed.
Earlier this year I was really excited for this game but the release looks like it has epic fail written all over it.
Hope I'm wrong, as the game truly has some innovation going on, but man...
The bean counters with their MBA's came in and removed 4 of the 6 major cities citing to move this project out by christmas rather than doing it right.
I think I will be sticking with Wow for awhile after hearing this.
http://saveie6.com/
"Players can get into the North American open beta by pre-ordering Warhammer Online from select retail partners."
How can it be called an "open beta" when you have to basically purchase the game?
Could this be to test the waters of their server capability. If they are shooting high, they could expect thousands of people online at launch day, but with the beta they can test their system by putting a handful of people on and checking to see if their systems can handle what people may throw at it, and if they system can't, they say "Hey, it's still in beta..."
I doubt this will get my WoW money though :P
Bummer. I was kinda hoping I might avoid buying a another failure of a MMO by trying the open beta when it came out. Guess I'll leave crashing the servers to someone else.
"...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive...it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it..."
I'm an elder beta tester, and here is my review:
The poor graphics gave me a really bad first impression, but the graphics are honestly better than WoW (not saying much), and we all know that graphics aren't everything, gameplay is king.
So, I decided to give it another shot with the 3.2 patch and jump into RvR.
So far I'm having a blast. You can level and XP in this game through either PvP or questing; you don't have to quest or grind at all. For me this is a major plus because I love levelling through PvP.
I wanted to talk for a second about some of the unique mechanics I noticed, which you might have already heard about before. The archmage I'm playing has a mechanic known as high magic, which the shaman also has, but it's called Waagh!. Basically, how it works is like this: If you cast damage spells, your healing counter goes up from 1 to 5, by a point for each damage spell you cast. If you cast healing spells, your damage counter goes up from 1 to 5, by a point for each healing spell you cast. This counter is like a charge that can be saved, but if you stop casting spells for 10 or 15 seconds you lose all the charges you have. If you cast a bunch of damage spells and build your counter up to 5, your next healing spell that normally would take 3 seconds to cast will be instant, and will heal for more. Likewise, if you build your healing counter up to 5, your next damage spell will hit harder. This unique dynamic encourages people to not just be healbots, but to be in the fray of battle, dishing out damage, and tossing out heals constantly. Every class has a similar unique mechanic, which will be refreshing for those of you used to filling a simple role (like healbot).
The RvR minigames are really well done and I jumped right into a queue with a level 3 archmage (healer, DoT archetype) and was able to contribute to battle right away. Think of instanced battlegrounds, but more fun because there are events that happen during the battle. For example, the RvR I was playing had 2 control points. If Empire or Chaos captured both of those points and held them for 10 seconds, a fireball would shoot out of the points, engulfing everything within about 100 feet and insta-killing everyone that was in it's path. It made things very dynamic because you could capture both points, and everyone would have to run out, resetting the points and allowing them to be captured again by you or the opposing team.
There are also keeps to capture in open RvR (world PvP), and with siege weapons such as catapults, burning oil, doors to break down, etc, it can be very epic. I've been in battles with over a hundred people on each side and the performance is pretty amazing considering how many people are participating.
Not only do you get XP for fighting in RvR, you also get RP, which are like PvP XP. You have two different levels, your Rank which is like your PvE level, and your Renown Rank, which is like your PvP level. When you get to certain Renown Ranks, you get access to buy
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
1) The gameplay video looked like nothing special. But then, neither did the early WoW one... it could still be good I guess.
2) You'd have to turn in your geek card if you actually paid and played an MMO without waiting a few months for it to be playable.
3) If you're the type that enjoys MMOs, you're probably already playing one. And if you're paying for one MMO, and you enjoy it, what's the point in paying for another? In this case they have a fanbase rabidly gnashing their teeth already but I wonder if that's enough to bite into a very well established market?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it -- I'm huge!
Why are people calling this an "open beta"? This is hardly open.
For info on all the class abilities and zones, http://www.wardb.com/ is up :-)
This coming weekend is Preview Weekend. I gather the idea is to stress-test the servers, not actually start the beta early.
And since they just lifted the NDA I can openly talk about this.
Yes, the game has some rough edges, but damn its got a lot of content.
Way too much content so I ended up skipping a lot of it just to explore areas.
Anyways, coming from the background of a GW fan, I will say that Mythic has captured the atmosphere quite well. There is always something to do and I never found myself saying to myself "Hey... I'm just grinding."
Yeah some of it was, but it wasn't a boring grinding.
There isn't an economy to speak of, but I believe maybe that was the best design decision ever to make a game without an economy rather than a broken economy that inspires gold farmers and imbalances the game.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
I find the PvP aspect of the game poorly balanced. There are no abilities that would allow few good players to overcome the zerg of the opposing realm. Basically most RvR consists of constant pushing back and forth until the side with more players prevails. To top that off on EVERY server they put up, Destruction outnumbered Order by good 50%. Sprinkle that with few abilities which are clearly overpowered, and you only exacerbate the imbalanced population problem, as only one class of one race may have such ability. This all to me is a recipe for disaster.
However, a casual player may not care if the game is balanced, since they only want to play an hour here or there. But they might care about the bugs which were not a priority it seemed in Beta. They may also care about the constant server reboots, and whole zones crashing...
I'm guessing this thing is Windows-only? Usually when a company can't even be bothered to say on what platforms their software will run, it's because they're under the impression that Windows is the only one that exists.
Ah, well. Any bets on whether the couple million people who play WoW on macs will outnumber the total number of players this ever achieves?
I just saw this game at Gen Con over the weekend. I was really, really unimpressed by it.
When I first saw it I was really confused, I turned to my friend and said, "Why are these people playing WoW underneath a Warhammer Online banner? That just doesn't make any... ooooooh."
If you're currently a WoW player, you might as well just stick with that, if you're not then this game probably won't interest you either. (Champions Online on the other hand...)
can i ask how is the gameplay? All I've seen have been the videos ea mythic have occasionally released, and I have to tell you it looks decidedly unexciting. Activate Power, wait, monster activates, wait, you activate, etc.
Is the combat system a lot like WoW? From the gameplay trailers I've seen, it sure seems like it. I'm really curious, despite the content cuts. But I am not thrilled at the idea of buying the game if, despite the cool extras, at the core it's got the WoW keypress/timer-style control.
What do you mean there isn't an economy? PLease explain.
The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
After the Bonedancer debacle, followed by the castable endurance buff + left axe or quad hit fuckup, can we really trust mythic to have the judgement to balance the game properly? Early results suggest that destruction is OP and order is underpopulated, will mythic figure out how to fix this? And when will an MMO developer realize that tf2 style red vs blue factions is the only way to have true balance?
The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
Auction houses were/are not in game yet, and there is not much of a crafting system to speak of (yet?)
I've played them all. And the most boring thus far has to be LOTRO because of its lack of economy. I was enthused about LOTRO for sure, but I became disillusioned with it faster than any other game after reaching the level cap. Sure, there's tradeskills and "money" but it doesn't really mean much (much like WoW, just to get the negative mod points). The more games head towards "NO DROP" items, the less they interest me. I guess that's why I keep heading back to EQ -- not that that holds my interest much any more either (Blah, blah, yes: EQ came up with NO DROP, but IMO it's much less pronounced than any proceeding MMORPG). Which is sad because it promotes trading between players. Global auction houses are what lead to -- and note this -- widespread gold farming. At any rate, it's pointless talking about cutting "half the content" when you don't know what the original amount was.
"What kind of music do pirates listen to?" -Paul Maud'dib
"Yeeeaaarrrrr n' Bee!!" -Stilgar, Leader of Sietch Tabr
Oops, I failed to make my point clear. I think that economies are important to MMOs to increase their enjoyment. IMO of course.
"What kind of music do pirates listen to?" -Paul Maud'dib
"Yeeeaaarrrrr n' Bee!!" -Stilgar, Leader of Sietch Tabr
The "pre-order" deal at Target isn't actually a pre-order. You pay $1 and you get a box with a coupon for $5 off the game along with all the benefits of pre-ordering, including beta access. So if you don't like it then you're only out a buck. If you do like it then you can get it for $4 off.
Never shopped at EBGames/Gamestop? All preorder deposits are refundable.
I must say I've had more fun in the past few weeks in this game than the 6 months I spent in WoW and can't wait for it to go live.
Both PvE (especially Public Quests) and RvR are a joy to play and the way RvR is handled in this is much improved over DAOC's where you saw very little action until higher levels.
I'm not sorry if I sound like a fanboy!
R Tape loading error, 0:1
It does have a global cooldown of sorts. not sure if it's totally exclusionary of other abilities, but it does stop people just spamming keypresses.
The gameplay is a lot of fun, each class has tons of abilities at its disposal, and how they interact with each other is inspiring.
Orthogonality is a good way to describe it.
With the shaman, you cast damage spells to increase your healing power and vice versa, but other classes have different configurations.
For instance the chaos healer, Disciple of Khaine, has something akin to a mana store for casting healing spells. The way they replenish that is by doing (primarily) melee attacks. So the more they attack in frontline combat, the more healing they can do.
I've played both these classes, and while it starts being difficult due to being an old WoW player and not being used to this, it really is a challenge and rewards using more than one button continuously.
While the open beta only starts September 7th, there is a Preview Weekend starting August 22nd to August 25th for everyone who pre-ordered the game.
I haven't played the game yet but by reading the comments in this thread I'm now really excited to try it this weekend.
What the other person said about the auction houses and lack of crafting, but the best gear IMO is garnered through public quests and RvR scenarios rather than buying it. Most of the stuff is "bind to player" so you can't transfer it anyways.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
I never played WoW but its a lot faster paced than EQ in my opinion. They use AP (Action Points) instead of mana which everyone has for special skills (melee included).
It also seems that you quickly regenerate HP as well quickly between battles so there isn't any down time which I found very nice. Of course the same applies to mobs so if you wail on a mob and then run away long enough to get you HP back up the mob will have his HP back full as well.
Yes, I find myself pounding the keyboard in certain orders based on certain combos of spells. I've been playing a magus which generally I start out by summoning a demon first and sicing him on the target with me hitting him with a no time cast but 10 second cool down spell and then follow up with another ranged 3 second cast by no cooldown spell and then again and then the burst spell.
Its not like playing a console fighting game with combos but its not simply click on the enemy and press auto attack either.
Somewhere in between... I personally don't find it overwhelming but its not that slow either.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Well I'll agree to some extent. A well designed economy can make a game enjoyable (well I'm personally thinking about Ultima Online but I think that was an accident more than a well planned design).
However, I don't think WAR is trying to fit a mold of anything that I can compare it too. I mean, Team Fortress 2 is fun but it doesn't have an economy to speak of. So I think the same concept is here as well. Its not as gear oriented as some other games so I think that helps with the lack of economy.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
thank you for the feedback - it sounds more and more interesting to me. I don't mind cooldowns for certain abilities, as long as I've got one basic attack that's ready pretty much whenever i need it. I hate auto-attack - i want to feel involved in the combat.
My question stems from something i've noticed from my hands-on time with WoW (disclaimer: i am not a subscriber) - combat in WoW really boils down to timing, it seems to me. since even the basic attacks are on a timer, you have to hope that the creature you're fighting either has a weak attack, or a slower timer than you. With ranged combat, for example, you try to engage a creature at maximum range, knowing that your ranged attack can be used every 1.5 seconds or whatever. Ranged combat is particularly unexciting, IMO. You know that for most creatures, you can get at least three shots in before he closes for melee - four, if you've set everything up perfectly. Since, for the grind monsters, you only need 4 shots to kill it, every combat simply becomes a matter of engaging at maximum range and hoping that he doesn't dodge/parry so you can move on to the next victim. it's not exciting, and it's not involving. it's (in my experience) a matter of queueing up your actions, and hoping they go off soon enough that the monster doesn't kill you.
WAR sounds intriguing, though. Thanks again for the description. It seems to me that since combat is a major part of every MMO, the actual gameplay mechanic should be the most important part, but it's rarely discussed.
Or just go visit your local Target and look on the endcap. Spend an effing 99 cents for a pretty box with a few codes in it and you have your codes for the open Beta and the early headstart.
Repeat - that pretty lil box with the codes in it costs ninety nine pennies. Not anywhere near an actual pre-order price.
Oh yeah, it also has one of these other pieces of paper called a "coupon". It is good for 5 bucks off the price of the game if you decide to buy it later.
You either believe in rational thought or you don't
Generally, there are monsters that you could kill in 2 hits but they are always below your level and not worth fighting.
The spell ranges are measured in feet and at least the with the Magus the maximum range is about 100ft so I'm able to get a equal to my level mob about a quarter damage before he gets to me.
As a personal strategy either I use a pink horror who has ranged attacks do the first hit so that the mob is aggroed to him but I have found that blue horrows (melee) are stronger in defense and offense so I tened to summon the blue horror between me and the mob and then cast on the mob.
Of course this is just soloing with 1vs1 fights. Fighting harder mobs or more mobs take a bit different approach for different classes.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Have they? I thought it was just "imminent"
I could be wrong, but as near as I can tell, each of the 6 races has its own entirely different quest line, clear from 1 to the cap. That's a depressing amount of content. Depressing because there's no way I can come close to experiencing it all.
Until I see about the lifting first hand, I won't say much, but the greenskins are a total blast to play. I'm going to have to take a week off of work or something on release...
I'm confused, what is it exactly that you want the combat to be like?
Every RPG game I can think of that had interactive combat at all was basicaly a challenge of managing abilities on timers. Even in console VS. style fighting games there are timers and cooldowns inherent in the system that you aren't dirrectly shown but are there regardless. In FPS's your weapons have varying rates of fire and variables for accuracy and damage.
How would you implement a combat system that doesn't boildown to timing abilities and counter abilities? Keep in mind that if it becomes a challenge of who can mash buttons the fastest a computer will always win.
well, it's pretty simple what i want, actually. I guess you would say I'd prefer a twitch-style of play to something that feels like a hybrid turn-based combat system. If i'm going to spam-click my basic attack, it should go off as fast as it can, unless an enemy attack does something to interrupt it (like stun me, or whatever). If my rifle shoots 3 or 4 times per second, it should do that *every second* I hold the fire button down, until I run out of ammunition or overheat or get interrupted. It should not fire 3 or 4 rounds, wait for the monster to respond, and then fire 3 or 4 more rounds. i want combat to be simultaneous, not feel like we're watching the event queue in neverwinter or looking at the AP timer in fallout 2. My turn, monster's turn, my turn, monster's turn. That is how WoW feels to me, and the limited exposure I've had to WAR looks a lot like that. Which is why I asked for clarification.
I won't get into the other things that piss me off to no end, like an 'aggro circle' of creatures, or having to build a character that minimizes attack timers to win in PvP.
At the root, if the combat isn't turn-based, I don't want it to play like it's turn-based.
dammit, reviewed it and everything - that should be 'aggro circle' for creatures.
The War Herald had a notice about the NDA being lifted. That is for the Beta participants only. Elders and what happened/happens on Deathsword is still under an NDA and will be forever.
-- toolie
Yeah, I got that. My confusion probably comes from the fact that I have no clue what an "Elder" is, and if I qualify.
I suppose that probably means I am not one. :-)
These WOW FANBOYS are just bashing warhammer because they spent the last 3 years playing WOW!, and all there players, and friends will switch over to warhammer. Watch n learn!
Are you saying you want an RPG that resolves combat more like a FPS? If so you're probably just out of luck.
One of the draws to RPG's for me has always been that though combat happens at a slower pace it allows me to strategize more effectively. In most FPS my strategy consists of mulling over what got me killed last time and trying to change my behaviour in the future to allow for a win. But adapting strategy in the middle of a fight is pretty much an impossibility because combat resolves in a matter of a couple seconds.
Hellgate London was probably the best bet at a RPG/FPS and it looks like it didn't have the customer base to keep going.
Interesting, thanks. I kind of figured it was something like that, though I didn't know that they had left out crafting in large part. Not surprising, as if you have crafting you really have to have the auction house/personal vendor support structure too.
The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
Kinda bad news for the other races in the game eh?
especially the ones in the faction that opposes the faction with the humans.
(note I have no idea how WAR handles the whole faction thing - maybe both factions have humans?)
You either believe in rational thought or you don't
yeah, i was a pretty rabid fan of Hellgate, especially after they started testing 2.0. i think you're right, though. i'm pretty much out of luck. i had some hopes for age of conan, but not so much any more.
If you were in closed beta, you got an email stating that you are now an Elder. If you were an Elder, you would've known ;)
But the real Elders get to keep their forum tag of Elder, not the whippersnappers who are now Elders!
-- toolie
I was, but I didn't.
Oh well..