What is the appeal of Warhammer?

[iaredrew]

I keep hearing so much buzz about this game and everytime I think, "hey that looks cool" I watch a gameplay video or something to that effect and it just looks ungodly crappy (not the cinemas, they're hot damn)

So what entices you to want to play?

 

[Skaw]

What videos are you watching? The game, graphically, looks amazing for an MMO. Basically if FFXI is the only MMO you've played, you're not going to understand what a real MMO plays like.

 

[Sharpe]

What entices me is the fact that nearly everything i've ever wanted in an MMO is in Warhammer. It seems like they've thought of so much stuff to keep you occupied. The classes look extremely balanced compared to most MMOs, it's got great lore behind it. Public quests look awesome, keep sieges, living guilds and cities etc etc etc.

 

[Gerry]

Warhammer Online is being developed by Mythic Entertainment, who have been working extremely closely with Games Workshop to make sure the game is perfect and true to the Warhammer Lore.

Basically, I want to play it because it'll be the true competition for WoW seeing as how Warcraft (While a very good series in its own right) is a rip off of Warhammer. It is also very fun, and it shows how PvP in MMOs can be done correctly.

Plus, Marauders look like fun because YOUR ARMS MUTATE!

(Also Sharpe got me into it in a heartbeat prompting me to actually buy Warhammer models from Games Workshop now.)

 

[Valandil]

Nonstop action.

 

[Raesvelg]

From a background perspective, the game has 25 years of history to draw on. That gives it a very well-developed world to play around in, a lot of really iconic images (though many of them were ripped off by Blizzard when they made the original Warcraft game), and an incredibly diverse range of potential races and careers.

From a gameplay perspective, it takes just about every good thing from every previous MMO, and either implements or improves upon it.

There is a bit of a heavy emphasis on the "Realm vs Realm" aspect of the game, which can turn off people who don't much care for PVP. On the up side though, the RVR system tends to avoid the massive twinkage that goes on in WoW, if for no other reason than the fact that the RVR scenarios (along with pretty much everything else in the game) give experience points to the players. As such, it's impossible to park yourself at the max level of a scenario and whore out your renown there.

Public Quests are another nifty aspect of the game. It's a lot of fun to just walk into an area, join an ongoing quest, kill a bunch of things, accomplish a bunch of goals, ideally get some decent loot (or at least a fair amount of experience points) and if nothing else you'll get Influence, which is used to access rewards from a local NPC.

The crafting system is somewhere between WoW and FFXI. No recipes to buy, you can fail at crafting but losses are limited, HQ results are possible, etc etc. The only downside is that there are going to be only two "crafts" at the start of the game, and a handful of resource gathering skills like Butchery, Scavenging, and Cultivation.

Graphically the game is very pretty, with intricate details on armor and equipment, beautiful settings, and some very nice monsters to run around and fight. Having character models lose detail and framerate the further away they are from the player will also probably make a significant difference to lower-end PCs in crowded areas.

My only real issues with the game (aside from the usual teething problems of new servers and whatnot) were the relatively overpowered nature of the tanking classes and the near-ubiquitous pathing bugs. Watching my Lion or Squig go haring off in completely the wrong direction, getting caught in trees, or just plain sitting still and ignoring my movement got irritating really quick. It even outweighed the amusement of seeing enemy NPCs caught up in the same pathing bugs.

 

[Reya]

The game is fun and the action never stops, simple as that.

Public quests are awesome. From what I have played so far there are 3 stages to the quest. Two waves of mobs and the third is a boss. There was nothing cooler than fighting with my Witch Elf against 2 waves of High Elves while two dragons fought in the sky. When the third stage came, the winning dragon of the fight flew down to battle us. This happen at level 2. After fighting the boss a treasure chest appeared and those of us who contributed during the quest got to loot the box. There is no treasure sharing. Each person drew up their own personal loot which catered to their profession. I love this! No more loot whoring!

The jobs are great. Out of all the MMOs I have played... and there are a lot... this game hands down has the most starting jobs than any other game I have played.

I used to not like PvP too much. Had my share of it in my MMO days, with WoW standing out the most for me. As Raes stated, you can no longer twink. During RvR scenarios you earn rating points and experence points. Players can not just park themselves outside of a resurrection area and camp other players who have just recently re-spawned after dying. High level NPCs guard the rez areas, which is very nice. You can also access any of these RvR realms by clicking on the queue beside your mini map. When your number is up to go, you will have the option of warping to the realm. You can do this warp as solo or with your party. *Edit* I like PvP now :3

The game has wonderful graphics, and great interactive environments. There are several mini-game type quests. For example, while playing on my White Lion, I did a low lvl quest which involved me to man a bolt thrower. From there, the camera panned to first person, almost like a shooter, and I had to aim and fire bolts at harpies on the screen. So much fun!

The game also has a pretty good sense of humor

I can't wait for this to come out. I had a blast this weekend playing. WAR is definably the MMO for me. I can pick it up for an hour or two a night and be able to accomplish something. My biggest complaints would have to be the AI path bugs. I want to play a White Lion (Order) & Witch Elf (Destruction). My lion during the beta liked to run the other way and get stuck in trees. Hopefully, when the open beta comes out and the game for that matter they will fix these bugs.

Anyways long story short, I have very high hopes for this game. It is a load of fun!

"Khaaaaiiinnnnneeee!!!"

 

[Skaw]

There is a bit of a heavy emphasis on the "Realm vs Realm" aspect of the game, which can turn off people who don't much care for PVP.

Like I told my friends. Mythic should've made all servers open RvR. If you don't like PvP, why play anything Warhammer - a universe where everybody hates everybody? It makes zero fucking sense.

 

[iaredrew]

Holy crap, thanks raes and reya for the information overload. I did sign up for the closed beta and was going to try the open beta.. maybe I'll give it another looksy on the site later tonight and see what's up again.

I assume you're in closed beta?

 

[iaredrew]

Ok I see it now >.>. I still want to know what entices people though.

I'll at least try open beta now. I guess the finer details were really really lost within the video compressions.

BTW the mount call animation is a really really cool idea.

 

[Reya]

Holy crap, thanks raes and reya for the information overload. I did sign up for the closed beta and was going to try the open beta.. maybe I'll give it another looksy on the site later tonight and see what's up again.

I assume you're in closed beta?

Hehe Yeah, me and Raes both played during the closed beta and will probably mess around on the open together. We also pre-ordered our copies so we get to play and keep our characters a few days before the game goes officially live. I would have to recommend checking out the pics that were posted in the Warhammer Online thread. I know when earlier pics were taken and videos, they didn't quite have their lighting effects right. Now, that does not seem to be a problem.

I know myself, Raesvelg, Aragaeon, Karandras and few other friends we know irl plan on playing on the server Mad Dog Pass if it is still available. We plan on starting a guild too :3 If you want to play with us during the open beta that is mots likely where we will be at. Hope you enjoy it !

 

[Strid]

While, imo, it's not graphically pleasin', it has two things goin' for it. First off it's not WoW and secondly the PvP is done by the DAoC crew, which is long for done right, and can potentially play a huge part of the game. Hell, you can level up in PvP, can't beat that shit with a stick.

 

[Skaw]

While, imo, it's not graphically pleasin'.

Don't confuse style and graphics(Also worth noting, beta is hardcapped for medium settings.) They are two very different things. The game is beautiful graphically, the best looking MMO imo - which is why it has very high system requirements for the genre. You have to see the official screenshots to really see the details.

 

[Strid]

Don't confuse style and graphics

Now that you mention it like that, that is exactly what I was doin'. I hate the armor/character style with a passion but it wont keep me away if the game is fun. The areas and all look really nice, especially the Chaos startin' base and the Destruction city, Inevitable City or whatever it's called. But yeah, so long as I can play a guy that friggin' mutates and grows fuckin' tentacles out of his back I don't give a shit what kind of armor look I'm sportin' that's just beast. Another thing, the horse mounts don't run like they have a stiff back and a carrot up their bunghole, that's sweet. I hated horse animation in WoW.

 

[Raesvelg]

Like I told my friends. Mythic should've made all servers open RvR. If you don't like PvP, why play anything Warhammer - a universe where everybody hates everybody? It makes zero fucking sense.

From a storyline viewpoint, aye, it makes little sense to have non-PVP areas.

From a gameplay perspective, however, it makes a ton of sense to have areas where people can't get ganked. Even in WAR where you're theoretically limited to your own tier and can't pull the rampant douchebaggery that exists in WoW, it's nice to have areas where you don't have to worry about someone offing you out of spite.

 

[Strid]

I just looked up what's bein' called the min. requirements... Are they fuckin' serious with the 15GB HD space and, the bone biter for me, a 2.5 GHZ processor?

 

[Skaw]

To be honest, it's not like a 2.5 GHz PC is anything special. You could put together a machine to run the game beautifully for a few hundred bucks, and thats from scratch.

 

[Tymon]

PvP in WAR seems to be incredibly active. The ENTIRE GAME is extremely active. When I went from FFXI to WoW, I thought, wow, this game is really fast paced. WoW is slow as shit compared to this game. You have to be contstantly aware to everything going on just to keep up.

 

[Strid]

To be honest, it's not like a 2.5 GHz PC is anything special. You could put together a machine to run the game beautifully for a few hundred bucks, and thats from scratch.

My computer is dated, 5 years old, but it's a great machine. The only problem I have is my processor which is only 1.83 GHz. Replacing only it is out of the question and buildin' a new rig when this one is perfectly fine is out of the question as well. For a MMORPG the bare min. should AT LEAST be 1.5 GHz not a whoppin' 2.5 GHz. If I did fix it up a bit I'd need a new mobo and processor and I don't think a single game is worth it. I was just lookin' for somethin' to hold me over to Diablo 3, I'm not really what you'd call a PC gamer. I've played Quake II, FFXI, WoW, CS (very little) and F.E.A.R. in all of my years of ownin' a PC and I've owned great PC's for about 14 years now.

 

[mysticalone]

Looks like the same ol same ol to me.. this just in from mmorpg.com..

THE BAD NEWS: First and foremost, let's get one thing straight. There isn't much that is new or innovative about this game, with the exception of the Public Quests and the ridiculously easy grouping button. Every aspect of Warhammer Online has been done, and done better at some point. The RvR is good, but Dark Ages had it beat hands down, the PvE content is nothing special at all, and the character developement is more an afterthought. Combat is cumbersome at times, especially as a melee class, where you will find yourself mashing down the button for your basic attack almost ceaselessly, while peppering in a special ability here and there. There is no skill queue, meaning you can't start casting that fireball and click on the next skill you want to go off, you have to wait until after the fireball has been cast and the button has cleared. This leads to a screen that is constantly bombarded by the message "ABILITY NOT READY", especially during an intense fight. The looting system for the Public Quests also left me with a bad taste (you gain a bonus to your roll depending on how much you contribute), there were a few times I was number one on the list and left empty handed, because they made the rolling between 1 and 1000, there is a good chance that some freeloader who did virtually nothing will end up with the spoils of your hard work.

FINAL WORD: Keep in mind, these are the impressions I had after playing the Preview Weekend, and do not neccessarily represent the finished product. Though Warhammer Online may not be groundbreaking, it does bring together the common elements in a very entertaining way, just don't expect too much.