Today is 1.4 release day for Warhammer Online, and here are some interesting things and tools you can use to prepare.

1- Renown training is changing quite substantially, here is a builder you can use to prepare so you aren’t completely baffled in game.
http://warstats.net/rbuilder?lang=usa

2- Careers are mainly the same, but if you are returning or looking to respec after a different renown build, you will need a career trainer. Rancid has been busting ass to get the career section of his site up and running. You can find the career section here and is up to date with 1.4!
http://wardrobe.war4scrubs.com/CareerBuilder.aspx#

3- There are a lot of new items and sets. Items flood into wardrobes site fast, so within a day or two you should be able to find all your new items and weapons.
http://wardrobe.war4scrubs.com/Default.aspx

4- You can buy the RvR packs at the EA Store. $10 for one, $15 for both. Tell them Tyanon from BackSeatDev sent you. They may give you a discount! http://eastore.ea.com

5- I had assumed that RR80-90 would be a near impossible grind so people didn’t cap out, but apparently this is not the case. In the Q/A yesterday it was said going from 80-100 would be similar in time as 60-80. So maybe the RR100s running around are not so far off as I thought. Good thing? Bad thing?
Read the full Q/A from November 17th that Charlotte wrote up at:
http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4796932

6- The patch includes new scenerio/renown weapons. The first coming at RR81 and are purchased using existing Royal Insignia’s and Captains emblems (a new currency a tier above officer emblems).

7- No more waiting for a domination victory in a zone. Take the keep, win the zone.

8- Sovereign drops in stage 1 of the city now. Stage 2 is the RR90 set, Stage 3 the RR100 set.

9- The progression pack allows you to get your characters to level 80 faster. Scaling up to 300% when you are close to RR80.

10- Cave-In will still cause people to smash keyboards and monitors. Rampage will be overpowered. Healers still can’t efficiently remove important debuffs.

11- RvR and combat is about to be quite a bit different. Enjoy and congrats to Bioware/Mythic on the content release. Lets hope it is just one of many to come in the near future.

12- You can find me on twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/tyanon

My biggest issue with the game, by far, is the population on my home server of Iron Rock. So many people have been lost just due to lack of action and scenerio pops. I feel the unhealthy servers should have been addressed before this was added in. Already I see people paying the fee and jumping off the server. Will this cause issues coming up with an actual solution to the server’s population issues? Will Mythic question offering transfers off the server if people just finished paying to move off?

A paid character transfer is a good option for special circumstances, but IT IS NOT a solution to an unhealthy server. I will not pay 25 cents to move my characters to a server that is healthy, let alone 40 dollars for my zealot and choppa.

I believe in this game, and I already have drafts written up selling the RvR packs and subscriptions to the guild to get people and friends back playing. I believe very strongly however that the servers are Mythics responsibility to keep running and populated so that a enjoyable game experience is mantained.

The price does seem a bit high at $19.95 per character. On average, I think most people have 2+ characters they enjoy playing on whatever server they play on. In my post on server transfers and transactions I think I suggested an option where an account would have 24hrs to make any server transfers for characters on the account that they wanted… I feel that would have been a better option for people with multiple characters.

I hope Mythic has plans for correcting unhealthy server populations and soon, because people are not really going to take too kindly to paying for something that becomes a free option sometime after, and those that are maintaining hope that Mythic does the right thing and helps the servers are growing even more frustrated.

I never quite finished it, and it is pretty unedited. I dug it out the other day and thought it might still be an interesting read to some people. Initially, it was almost meant to sell a position on the community team, one which I, of course, would have been interested in if it ever came out.

People like Andy Belford bring a lot to the table and have helped with Warhammer’s success quite a bit by opening communication channels between the community and developers, however there still seems to still be a piece missing for keeping server communities and populations healthy.

It was projects like this that eventually led to me starting up this website.
Please let me know what you think.

Population_and_balance_issues_Warhammer_Online_2009_2010

Cheers,
Troy aka.Tyanon

Double Rainbow

I am of the opinion that heal debuffs are probably fine the way they are, definately not worth pissing off people by removing it from some careers. The real problem in my opinion is that it is difficult to remove or counter them.

I do actively attempt to dispel debuffing effects on people as a healer, but at some point on a focused target, you need to give up and just try to throw heals, even if it is at a reduced amount. I find it can often be less helpful throwing GCDs at trying to dispel the real problematic debuff(s) from a person, the odds are too great that you are just taking off garbage effects that are not really the source problem. This is of course assuming your class can even cleanse the debuff(s) your trying to remove.

I would suggest that tactics be added to the game similar to the Warrior Priest group cleanse tactic to other healers or make the single target dispel more effective, like removing 1 of teach type of debuff, or 3 debuffs of whatever type that class has the ability to clean.

This should have the affect of increasing time to kill in a lot of situations, which would be desired, however it may also create a bigger gap between organized /skilled groups and pugs. Obviously that could be a concern for Bioware/Mythic.

Spawn camped scenerios are unenjoyable for both sides. People being pinned in feel frustrated because they have no room to move out in a lot of cases. Your forced to go forward into a gauntlet of positioned opposition.

People doing the spawn camping have generally boring time too. Some groups try to hang back more but unless you have communication and influence over the second group, your risk them getting run over if you pull back. If you stay up with them, you risk them pulling guards and wiping a bunch of your force.

I have in the past posted up discussion threads on ways spawn camping could be reduced by minor or major changes to scenerio layout, mechanics etc..

At this point in time, I think most development is being spent (properly) on the new rvr pack and major patch changes. Existing scenerios will probably not be changed to accomodate complicated ideas and scenerio redesigns such as auras around the warcamp that up damage/healing or alternate exists/portals.

A simple way to aid in reducing spawn camping in existing scenerios that would -hopefully- involve little to no coding would be to increase the damage on the camp seige weaponry by large amount. Maybe even have this player controlled seige weaponry kill people in a single shot if they are silly enough to go into range of a warcamp/spawn location and get hit by the weapon.

People would quickly learn and adapt to the new range and more breathing room outside of your spawn area would be allowed. You would also be more in control of clearing the campers out, instead of pinning your hopes on unreliable guards which seem at times to do nothing at all.

Obviously this does not solve the root causes of spawn camping, nor is it meant to. This is simply an idea for a quick fix to give more breathing room outside of a spawn location in a scenerio and move the fight more to the middle of the scenerio. In the same swipe, it should help remove NPCs from being a factor in scenerios.

“We had no choice but canceling the service because we have been informed that no longer proper support for developing from EA is expected”

Who knows what this means for EU and NA Warhammer, but with RvR packs coming out in a couple months, lets hope they go well and at least a small amount of development resources remain to continue to build on Warhammer.

Source: http://www.thisisgame.com/go/?p=1911

“Our general goal for tactics is that we want players to agonize over their loadouts and have to make tough choices between several desirable options and end up with a loadout that they’re happy with once the choice has been made. Additionally, we want players to be using different loadouts for different situations, and tactics to be less “set and forget” – hence the multiple loadout sets built into the basic UI. It’s pretty common knowledge that there are some tactics which are viewed as “must-haves”, and we see from our metrics that players don’t frequently change tactics. Broadly speaking, our approach to improving tactics is to take one or two of the least-used and consider what improvements can be made to them; in most cases, we’d rather make bring up under-performing tactic options and make them as desirable as the most-used tactics.”

This got me thinking about tactics and how I think Nate is spot on in his thoughts on people picking a load out and just sticking with that.
On my Zealot I have the 4 I feel are the best and unless I go and do some PvE, those tactics do not change.
On my Choppa I actually have 3 tactic sets, each a varying degree on survivability from running solo to being in a solid group with guard. Really though, I would switch tactics maybe once per scenerio at most or just when I join a group.

The biggest thing preventing people from switching tactics based on the situation they are in is the restriction from switching while in combat. If this was lifted, you could further improve smooth transitions by allowing macros/hotkeys for tactic sets and linking tactics to stances/mechanics (eg. the new Zealot/RP mechanic for healing and damage modes). A cooldown may be required however.

This would add some interesting new group vs group dynamics as whole groups could have alternate strategies and flip to them on the fly.

It also just makes sense for ORVR as you often cannot get out of combat and you really do not know what you will encounter next. At the moment it creates an experience that promotes the most generic set it and forget it setup to ensure you will not be hand-cuffed with more specialized tactics.

What do you guys think? Aside from people that complain that there is mystery to their opponents, what other things could go horribly wrong?

Read the full interview by Going Rancid: http://goingrancid.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/war-qa-with-cc-developer-nate-levy/

My opinion on this this is pretty simple. If you don’t try your best against everyone you fight, I have little sympathy if you lose. This is not a “hardcore” stance, this is just a “realistic stance for a mmo fight against other people.

Others have mentioned that people do use the information for tactical reasons, like running away if they feel they are outgunned. This is somewhat valid and I can at least accept that gear can be useful for people who want to know if they are out matched and make decisions based on their risk tolerance.

I have instead decided to offer a compromise. I would like to suggest that a visual way of determining the relative gear level to your oponent be put in. Allow appearances to be set any way you like and have that be viewable by all. Perhaps a colour coded “con” system or star rating for which people to tell someones approximate rank or approximate relative rank compared to yours. An exact number would not be required, just a general range based on RR/Wards. People could then use these as indicators of gear level and not be cheated out of winning battles they are capable of winning because they didn’t try. Realm titles do show under the character names, but perhaps this isnt “visual” enough.

I know Bioware/Mythic put a lot of work into the new appearance system and the way it stands right now it feels incomplete and it is getting laughed at because it can only be seen by yourself and realm. I understand why Bioware/Mythic is hesistant to put this in full scale for both sides however, there are a decent number of people against it. More then I would have expected.
I like having some mystery about my oponents, and I like that people can customize their apperance for all to see. An opt-in sort of option may work, but it still seems weak. For people to get on board and fully enjoy the new appearance system, it needs to not hinge on someone from the other realm checking a check box somewhere for it to work.

An update announced today will solve this long time problem. Stats will be moving to 1:1 ratio with the heal mode/dps mode mechanic for zealots and rune priests.
I immediately and excitedly hit up WarDB to check out how the RvR sets in the huge gap from annihilator and Warlord would fair as healing upgrades and I was very pleasantly surprised.

I have not included all stats/bonuses, just some key stats for quick reference. Obviously mixing and matching these sets may yield even better results and results more tailored to your favorite bonuses.

Heal Zealot: Sentinel Set
318 wp + 21 heal power
51 tough
100 wnds
5% heal crit

Invader: Heal Mode
341 wp +24 heal power
55 tough
120 wnds
5% heal crit

In summary, it looks amazing, the rvr sets look at least equal to PvE equivalent and depending on your perspective, they may be better. Zealots, like all classes still have a few remaining issues, but I am amazed at the progress they have made recently.

Imo, this should be a pretty huge boost for people looking to roll a healer. I have written in previous articles about how a healer is often a hard sell because of the amount of PvE that is required to gear it properly. Now that you can play the game mainly just doing RvR and stay in top gear for your level, it can’t do anything but make zealot/rp a pretty attractive option.

Set Reference:

Conqueror
1100 armour
144 wp
37 tough
46wnds
12 init
102 int
4 disrupt, 3 ap, 3 magic crit, 2 reduced armour pen, 20 heal pow

66 int
66wp
66wnds
5% magic crit
10% chance to gain 50 morale

Sentinel
1100 armour
144wp
51 tough
34 wnds
8 init
6 wep skill
108 int
11 hate reduction, 14hp, 3 crit reduce, 21 heal power

344 elemental
66 wp
66 wnds
5% heal crit
10% chance on hit to form a 126hp barrier on hit

DP
1209 armour
163 wp
57 tough
35 wnds
11 init
7 wep skill
117 int
3 ap, 3 morale, 2 reduced armour pen, 2 reduced chance to be disrupted, 3 heal crit

72 willpower
5% heal crit
72 toughness
5ap sec

invader
1209 armour
162 wp
55 tough
48 wnds
7 init
8 wep skill
107 int
2 morale, 15 hp, 24 magic pow
3 reduce crit

72 int
72 wnds
5% magic crit
10% on hit to recover 41 hp
+120 increased range