Thoughts on the Gamesday News

Well the weekend has come and gone, and here we are back to the grind of real life.  We did get a lot of interesting news though from Gamesday from the likes of Bruglir and WAR Aura.  I suggest you head on over to their sites for all the details.  From Vanity Pets and Mounts, to the Campaign changes and Skaven, there is a lot of information in there.  I'm very interested in and looking forward to seeing what is posted on the Herald over the next month.

The Week That Was

Another week gone by as we wait for 1.4 and the RvR Pack.  Post is a little later than usual today, been sick and haven't felt up to it today. 

• Some Marauder changes on the horizon.  Must say I'm happy about this, and it's about time
• Wardrobe updates on the horizon.  I'm really looking forward to this. 
• Bootae has some great pics of the action on Norn.  I must say, it looks bloody awesome.  We need more action like that on Iron Rock.
• Black Orcs.  I don't know much...but I know I love you.... that may be all Mmmmm Gud needs to know.
• Another Eternal Citadel weekend.  Gaar breaks it down. 

A lot of people have been trying out the new Civilization V.  I myself want to check it out as well, but it's going to be tough with this weeks Weekend Warfront.  I need Insignias!  

Am I Cut Out for MMO's?

With Warhammers two year anniversary upon us, I decided to take a look back at the past few years of the game and reflect on what I've come to enjoy.  There has been good and no doubt some bad between 2008 and now, but all in all I think Warhammer is in a good place. 

Over the past few years I have played more characters than I can honestly even remember.  It started out with a Witch Hunter, Vizo, on Phoenix Throne and slowly progressed to roughly two dozen total characters (all 40) across the realms and servers.  Here is a list below, at least of the characters I can remember:

Warhammer, Two Years and Counting

What a weekend for Warhammer.  With it's two year anniversary this past weekend, the double xp / renown bonus was in affect and it made for some great and crazy battles on Iron Rock.  I received as much as 16,000 renown for a solo kill this weekend.  It was at a BO in Dragonwake, and I was on my rank 50 DoK.  Some scrub of a Witch Hunter could not finish me off, I honestly felt bad for him.  Overall I only gained about three full ranks this weekend on my DoK, Luvsiq.  Wait a minute, did I say only?  Thanks to what could possibly the biggest and most overlooked change to the game since day one, people are ranking up faster than ever. 

Gamers Unite - Brian Wood Memorial Trust

As an avid reader of online publications, I came across a write up on Yahoo! that really caught my attention.  It really stuck out in my mind as something everyone should get behind.  It is about a game designer, Brian Wood, who was tragically killed by a drunk driver earlier this month. 

I'd encourage everyone to take a minute and give the article a read.  As a gamer I can appreciate the time he took to make our lives enjoyable.  As a new father I can appreciate the sacrifice he made for his family.  While in the gaming world, we sometimes can forget even for a second that real life supersedes everything, but that's what the game is created for.  As Brian was someone who created environments to help forget our real life issues for a few moments, let's get together and help his family out with one of their own. 

The Brian Wood Memorial Trust has been created to help his wife and baby through this difficult time for them.  I recommend everyone go ahead and donate, even if it's a single dollar.  Brian's wife and baby would definitely appreciate it. 

Brian's wife, Erin, has also released an email to the general gaming community thanking everyone for their support.  In the letter it talks about how close knit the gaming community is and how special gamers are as people.  Let's show her just how close knit we are, and help her and the new baby out.

The Week That Was

Not a whole lot of news taking place right now on the Warhammer front.  With the RvR packs and 1.4 coming out soon, people are growing giddy with anticipation.  There has been a lot of speculation as what exactly will take place and rightfully so.  One site in particular that I have come across, Hypothetical WAR, has been doing a lot of talking about what possibilities there are with it.  Check it out.  A lot of Skaven information there, and it really gets you thinking.

• Rank-N-Vile and his wife decided to stick it out.  While his wife isn't a fan of the RvR aspect of WAR, I think they are making the right choice with so much we have to look forward to. 
• League of Legends sounds interesting from Wasdstomps opinion.  I may have to check it out. 
• You're always dressed to kill and you feel like you owe it to the world, but you owe it to yourself to check out Werits blog and the winners of his contest.  By the way, I miss NFG. 
• Solid idea from Bootae about scenario leeching.  I couldn't agree with him more by the way.  The amount of renown a solo healer can earn is absurd.  Not to mention it really hurts the rest of the scenarios groups.
• Who's your daddy now?  Grimnir lets us know.  

I also want to again point out Werit's Arsenal of War.  Such a useful tool that should not be overlooked.  I find myself using it a bunch.  Not much going on by me on Iron Rock at the moment.  Just been out in the lakes on one of my numerous Witch Elves.  I also realised I can't even remember the names of all the rank 40 characters I have in my possession.  Clearly that's an issue, and one for another post. 

The Week That Was

Figured I'd post a bit of a recap much like Werit does for readers of the Warhammer community to see.  As he is the one always doing the recaps, he isn't getting the exposure to his own site that he is due.  As one of the best bloggers for the Warhammer community, I highly recommend checking him out.  To start off the recap I'd like to congratulate WAR Bureau on one full year.  Let's see what else has gone on:

• Werit is constantly updating his Arsenal of WAR for us all, not to mention providing us with some sick pics of peoples characters.  Go and Vote!.
• Bootae's been up to his usual Blorc banter.  Pretty soon you will all fear the Gashcheese!
• Taransula is apparently an end game boss, winning 2v10's left and right.
• Grimgor Ironhide, as seen through Mmmm Gud's eyes
• Backseatdev is sick of spawncamping.  Who isn't?  Let's get this fixed!
• Mobile Siege anyone?  Yes please.

All in all not a bad week.  A lot of opinions and predictions swirling around with the anticipation of 1.4 and the slow release of new information.  It's really keeping everyone on their toes though, which is a good thing right now.  In relatively short time the xpac will be here, and true open RvR will dominate again! 

Keeping it Fresh

During my usual trolling of blogs and forums this morning, I came across Wasdstomp's, in regards to the mass exodus that certainly does appear to be happening to Badlands.  I can certainly relate to what he is saying.  I originally started playing Order on Phoenix Throne which slowly went to the wayside.  Then deciding to roll Destruction on Dark Crag, which again, slowly came to an end.  Now I find myself on Iron Rock as Destruction, and again it has the feeling as if it is slowly progressing to the abyss known as deletion.  Although Destro does its best to combat the massive outnumbering they have against them, there is not much we can do.  This really leads to a loss of moral within the losing realm, and slowly creates the "grass might be greener" feeling.  Something a third realm certainly would help with, but that's for another post.

Alt-Itis

Much like Bootae, I'm currently having a case of Alt-itis.  I had been playing my rank 80 Marauder for a few months again, and miss the sweet scrolling of purple numbers across my screen.  Being that I still haven't been able to complete my Sovereign set, I wanted to at least feel like I was accomplishing something.  So, I logged on my DoK.

Follow Up to the Royal Crest Problem

Just following up on my post from yesterday, I decided to do the very simple math and calculate the number of days it would take for you to attain enough Royal Crests through city sieges in order to complete your Sovereign set.  With having a lockout timer of 5 days, it would take you 705 days and 141 instances to complete your set.  Now obviously you can obtain Royal Crests outside of the cities, but not really that many. 

Royal Crests and Stage Three Gold Bags

Over the past few months, since about April I'd surmise, Mythic has really done a bang up job with Warhammer Online.  They have implemented things like the new city sieges, 1.36, and AAO.  All of which have gone a long way to promote a more healthy and stable player base so the future of WAR will thrive.  There is one facet of the game however that needs addressed, and that is the system we currently have for loot.

Time to Kill

Late last week Rancid had posted his Q&A with developer Nate Levy.  The very first question was that of Time to Kill, which is exactly what it sounds like.  I was happy to see that TTK was a bit to quick in their eyes, as it is in mine as well. 

A Grind, But Why?

I wanted to further a discussion and follow up to a Rank-N-Vile post having to do with gear grinds.  In today's MMO most players, casual especially, feel as if the game really comes to a grind at the later levels or end game.  Understandably so.  Gone are the days of being a part of a larger community where the end game is to protect or capture a city for your realm, rather than rank and gear up a single character.   But when and why has all this changed?  There are a few reasons in particular that I believe contributed to the fall of a true community gaming experience, and implementing what we have now.....gear grinds.

Keep Sieges

In response to Wasdstomp's, RvR Pack 101: Keeps, I'd like to continue the discussion.  For whatever reason this really seemed to ignite a fire in my pants and I had to get my thoughts out to everyone.  I definitely agree with Wasdstomp in that the current mechanic needs changing, but I disagree about the way he is proposing to do so. 

Eternal Citadel Thoughts

Well, for me the weekend is most certainly over.  I must say that I believe it was a rather productive one, I think...

The Eternal Citadel came and went by almost as quickly as the matches themselves within the new 6v6 Scenario.  Most were happy with it, but there were some who weren't to impressed.  Everyone can agree however that if you needed to farm Insignias, this was the place to do it.  With the average match lasting no more than 5 minutes, it was a prime time to grind out your Royal weapons.

Give an Inch, and They Take a Mile

As I was running in an ORvR group the other night on IR, a funny thing started to happen.  People were complaining about the amount of Renown they were getting, and the state of the Against All Odds mechanic. 

As destruction on Iron Rock, we are constantly outnumbered.  The numbers game is never in our odds, and I would venture to say that it seems to be at a near 2:1 ratio.  With the implement of AAO last week though, the Destruction players hadn't really complained much, till now.  After slowly losing the arduous battles in Chaos Waste and Caledor, the complaints started to roll in:

Skavenville

Unfortunately I'm at work and can't view the below, but from my droid it looks sweet.  Can you even imagine the possibilities something like this can lead to? 

http://www.gamereactor.eu/images/?textid=4654&id=222028

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.4

Speculation on the Bioware / Mythic Chat

Today 20th August at 15:00pm CET, Bioware Mythic allowed us to ask questions regarding the new “RvR Pack” and below is a complete list of all questions.

Hello everyone, Carrie and Stuart here from BioWare Mythic, coming to you live from GamesCom!!!
Carrie – The news is all being shared at GamesCom, but the press are hitting up a lot of different places, so they need time to write it up! If you’re eager for WAR news, keep an eye out there, we’re giving several interviews a day!

DAoC Realm Ability Examples

With the speculation of "Active" Realm Abilities comming to Warhammer, I figured I'd post the below. These are current  active Realm Abilities in DAoC.  These are all purchasable through use of your "Realm Points" which could be compared to your Renown Points.  Please also keep in mind that each are not simply 1 point, and you may be able to buy them in tiers similar to Warhammer. Obviously these are just an example of some possibilities that could arise with such a system in place.  These can all also be found here and here.

Taking Notice

Looks like Mythic has taken notice toward the general feeling of negativity in regards to the "news":

Andy Belford


Created about 9 hours ago
Folks,

I know that everyone is eagerly anticipating any sort of news regarding the future of WAR. My Apologies for not posting earlier than this (it's about 3 AM here...jetlag is teh debbil.), however after a long day at the show I needed some time to read all of the feedback and fully gather my thoughts. That being said, here goes:


We are not, at this time, prepared or ready to divulge full details of what is being included in the RvR Pack aside from what we will continue to comment on here at GamesCom. Be sure to continue checking your favorite Gaming News outlets for interviews we're conducting while here in Cologne.

There are features that we're simply not ready to discuss yet, however we made a commitment to the Community to have news about the future of WAR before summer's end. Over time, the picture of the RvR Pack will become much clearer as we will continue to involve the players in the development process of WAR.

We want to reiterate that this is a RvR Pack. We are dedicated to our continued focus on WAR as a RvR game.

As Carrie has stated, Free to Play is not something currently in consideration. Something that wasn't mentioned in the article was further explanation on what we mean by the statement "customizing your game experience" (paraphrasing): We currently plan on offering the RvR Pack with multiple purchase options which we're calling Power, Progression and Personality. I'm not ready to go into details on what exactly that means (yes, evil at work, however I just can't right now) but the focus is to allow you to purchase what you want and build your own experience with the new content.

I'm confidant that every talking point we currently have planned to discuss (both at GamesCom and Games Day) will be reported by those in attendance at Baltimore.

I am humbled by the dedication that so many of you have to WAR and it's future. Please stay tuned for more details, "In Development..." posts, Video Grab Bags, Developer Diaries and Dev Q&A's as we bring you updates surrounding this exciting new development for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.