backseatdev

I just finished my review of All Points Bulletin, which you can find on the post just before this, but now I want to speculate on what systems Warhammer developers could take a look at from APB.

Sure they are very different, but use your imagination.

Mission System: This is perhaps the neatest and imo, has the most potential to be awesome in any MMO. It is a bit tricky to apply to WAR because of the combination of killable/non-killable targets. WAR does have pvp flags implemented though, so maybe it is not that far off.

Imagine a current pve zone. You group heads over there and a NPC shouts at you saying that scouts have seen a dirty bunch of Order heading for a farm on the other side of the map. You accept and start heading there. Of course the Order group had a similar start only their NPC asked them to burn down a farm house. Both groups receive buffs where other people cannot interfere with them while they are on this quest. No outside heals, no outside attacking etc..

You get to the farm and Order is completing the clickable objectives to burn it down. You attack them and clear them out. You now need to hold the farm for 5min to complete the quest etc..

You quest complete, get X rewards and the farmer asks you to escort his wife to a certain location. Your group is now charged with protecting her. Meanwhile an Order group gets dispatched to kill her. Because your group won their last 5 quests, they have a higher hidden skill ranking, and higher skill ranking order groups are paired against you for the quest.

Maybe a mix of these kind of quests and open PvP would be a great way to get people into the lakes. In between actual quests, general pvp and general objectives could be fought over. These special quests could add value to the campaign as well. Towers and question objective objects could be placed around the lakes.

I admit, I am a bit all over the map with some of these ideas, but just thinking about it brings up a lot of cool, creative ways you could use some of the systems in APB in a MMO like warhammer. The two above were the mission system and the skill matching system.

Cheers,
Tyanon

I have been meaning to weigh in on the couple changes announced in the producer letter.

The first is the armor graphic choices. While I don’t know exactly how this will be implemented, I have for a long time been suggesting that they should allow people to set the look of the armor pieces from items they have unlocked in their tome. Allowing players to have a unique look. For almost everyone, stats reign supreme and looks are always secondary. You pick your gear based on how well it will let you win your battles, not how amazing it looks. In a lot of cases these choices would be very different if you wanted your character to look how you would like. While this obviously isn’t game changing, it is a very cool nice to have thing for the game.

Now, Zealots:
It has been mentioned that the harbinger mechanic of the zealot will be changed to a toggle, toggling magic and healing. I could make assumptions about the specifics on how this will be implemented, but instead I will generalize on how the intention will affect it.

Zealots at the moment are either healing or dps. They are decent healers, but not a first or even second choice really for healing classes. I assume most groups would still aim for dok/shammy if they had a choice and skill was equal. For DPS, no group is going to try to seriously compete with a zealot DPS. There is just too many alternatives for dps that can actually spike damage better. Hybrid zealots tend to fail at both. They bring some utility, but they end up taking up a group spot that could be better filled by someone who fills a role to its full potential.

My expectation is that changes aiming at making a zealot a better hybrid class will make the Zealot more well rounded, complete and more enjoyable to play. At the same time, in my opinion, it will add very little effectiveness to the class. Healing focused zealots will still be dedicated to healing tasks in competitive battles until the tides turn, then they could switch to damage and have some fun, but really, the outcome was already decided before they switched. Who knows what any potential cast time, cooldown time etc.. on switching might be. I would assume you could not switch back and forth instantly, or why have a toggle at all, just have your stats share full time so you dont have to macro things.

The biggest problem from my perspective is, I want the class to be top healing class. In line with WP/Dok/AM/Sham and a in a lot ways, RP in terms of healing and survivability. However, in this case I am 100% wrong, Mythic has always wanted the zealot to be a true hybrid class and they are now getting around to to turning it into the class they envisioned. It really isn’t their fault I want it to be something else.

My hope is, in some sort of spell/skill swapping, zealots end up with Ancestors Echo and a reduced cooldown on our AE detaunt. RPs can have anything they like, I would pay money to give transference to Rune Priests, then start a count down until Order realizes that Rune Priests running around specced for transference is actually a nerf to order as a realm.

The information may not be as plentiful as I would like, but one thing is certain. I really like that Carrie and the communications team is sticking with the monthly producer letters. I can’t wait to find out more about what may be coming to Warhammer Online.