Warhammer Online Pre-Order Posse

[Eric P]

I was just curious if we wanted to try to get together on the same server and what not when the headstart rolls out.

[Draft]

I'm in the preview. Don't know what the server names are though...

[Eric P]

me either

i guess we'll set fire to that bridge when we come to it

[FatalT]

I'm in the open beta and preview weekend. Playing with some people from work though. I think we're going Destruction.

[Eric P]

one thing that worries me a bit are the reports that now the side of order has only one tank on their side while every chaos race has a tanking class

[Fragamemnon]

Order has two tanking classes-Ironbreaker and Swordmaster. People looks at SM's and just assume they are melee DPS since most of them use 2H more than sword and board, but they are very, very capable tanks.

I'm going to be playing with some MMO-friends of mine in the beta-right now I have a level 21 SM on Abornash and having a blast-the game really is Dark Age of Camelot 2: Now with Warhammer and that's pretty much exactly what I wanted out of the game.

[Van Cruncheon]

Order has two tanking classes-Ironbreaker and Swordmaster. People looks at SM's and just assume they are melee DPS since most of them use 2H more than sword and board, but they are very, very capable tanks.

I'm going to be playing with some MMO-friends of mine in the beta-right now I have a level 21 SM on Abornash and having a blast-the game really is Dark Age of Camelot 2: Now with Warhammer and that's pretty much exactly what I wanted out of the game.

hopefully sans the god awful downtime waiting for health to recharge

[Fragamemnon]

When out of combat, you get about 1/6th or so of your total life restored every second or so, even if you are on the move. That, combined with the AP system ( basically, every class in the game has a quick-recharging action point pool to use abilities from ), means that you really have almost zero downtime out of combat.

[Fragamemnon]

NDA was lifted today. You can talk guys.

The game is absurdly good and is the first real MMO to step up to the plate and be on the same level as World of Warcraft since its release. It's PvP design is, just as Camelot's was at its release, far beyond anything else and the leveling PvE is every bit as compelling as the stuff in The Burning Crusade. The class designs are brilliant-built from the ground up for balanced PvP (unlike WoW) and the game does a really good jon in making each instance of the four basic "types" of class-melee DPS, ranged DPS, support, and tanks-each have a good toolkit of awesome PvP tools.

The big differentiator in terms of content is that WoW has a real PvE endgame focus and WAR has the big RvR endgame focus. I got my fill of EQ-style PvE raiding in pre-TBC World of Warcraft, and won't miss the lack of epic dungeons in WAR one bit.

[Eric P]

how is the pve questing?  is it annoying?

like say....compare it with outlands being the good and stranglethrone being the bad.

[Fragamemnon]

how is the pve questing?  is it annoying?

like say....compare it with outlands being the good and stranglethrone being the bad.

It is actually really dependent on population that is questing in the area. If the population is good, then you wind up doing "public quests" a lot while you are PvEing, which are basically group quests where instead of having to form a group everyone in the quest area participates in completing quest objectives.  This works out really well and the impromptu quest system without the annoyances of grouping is super cool. All of the quests that you get from the acutal quest NPCs are soloable and compare very favorably to the questing in WoW's The Burning Crusade zones. Once you do enough public quest stuff you get a reputation-like reward (generally doesn't take more than 45 minutes tops of PQ'ing to get max influence for the quest hub you are at).

While you quest you can also be in a RvR scenario (which is an instanced battleground) queue, and when the queue pops you can move your character to a safe spot near the camp you are questing at, enter the scenario, get some PvP done, and when the scenario completes (for which you get a healthy amount of XP and Reknown points, win or lose), you are right back to where you entered the BG ready to finish your PvE quest.

There are some other nice things about the PvE here-there is no harsh bring-a-friend code when pulling mobs, so if you just need one type of mob from the camp you can cherrypick it out. There is zero downtime for all classes-no eating or drinking-between pulls due to the crazy out of combat region and action point system. The game marks on your map the locations of the mobs, NPCs, or items you need for the quest, so you never really have to alt-tab to wowhead/thottbot to find out how to finish a quest. All classes are really strong in PvE, kill fast, and most have no problems taking on three mobs at once at their level if you get roaming adds while you are fighting or what not.

[Eric P]

awesome

[Akala]

Damn, I might have to pick this up. I wasn't planning on it really, but grouping w/o grouping sounds loads better than PUG's in WoW.

[Fragamemnon]

Damn, I might have to pick this up. I wasn't planning on it really, but grouping w/o grouping sounds loads better than PUG's in WoW.

It really does work out very well. Furthermore, the game has a notion of "open" parties, where you just form a group and leave it open, and anyone who wants to join can pop in and pop out if they like. The mechanic sort of breaks the stigma and hassle of joining/dropping groups and also works out well. The interface for these public groups is cool-you just click a button, see which open group is doing an activity you ar e interested in (public quest, RvR, etc.) and you see how long it will take on foot to get to their location.

[Smooth Groove]

How are the graphics, in terms of both quality and performance? 

[Eric P]

Damn, I might have to pick this up. I wasn't planning on it really, but grouping w/o grouping sounds loads better than PUG's in WoW.

It really does work out very well. Furthermore, the game has a notion of "open" parties, where you just form a group and leave it open, and anyone who wants to join can pop in and pop out if they like. The mechanic sort of breaks the stigma and hassle of joining/dropping groups and also works out well. The interface for these public groups is cool-you just click a button, see which open group is doing an activity you ar e interested in (public quest, RvR, etc.) and you see how long it will take on foot to get to their location.

but are there still party leaders?  like if a player is a dick, can he be kicked?

[Fragamemnon]

Not bad. Not as detailed as Age of Conan, but way way more detailed than World of Warcraft. The art is also quite good. My one downer is the lighting-which is pretty flat- and some of the textures, but then again I am just playing with a beta client and the full thing may look different.

Performance right now is hampered by some memory leaks (lol@1.3GB memory consumption), CTDs, and some chug and chop here and there. It's very smooth most of the time though even with AA and AF turned on running at high res. This engine isn't going to kill anyone's computers, but it's not ancient either.



Very representative of what the graphics look like. Also, the armor dyes and cool armor graphics really do a good job of making you not look like a clown if you don't want to, even with random greens and blues.

[Ganhyun]

question: I know this will be on pc, but is it gonna be put on 360?

[Fragamemnon]

question: I know this will be on pc, but is it gonna be put on 360?

no, this isn't ever going to be on consoles. get a pc or don't play MMOs.

[Fragamemnon]

but are there still party leaders?  like if a player is a dick, can he be kicked?

if he's a dick, just ignore him or drop the group. Unless you are in one of the instanced dungeons and thus stuck working with them it's not a big deal. One of the thing about the open group setup is that the expectations of group members to stick around and help do stuff is really, really low-people come in and come out of groups as they please, generally speaking.

[Smooth Groove]

Very nice looking for a MMORPG.  I hope this gets really popular so that Blizzard will hurry up and update WOW with some modern graphics. 

[Ganhyun]

question: I know this will be on pc, but is it gonna be put on 360?

no, this isn't ever going to be on consoles. get a pc or don't play MMOs.

Wow FFXI says hi. A MMO on a console, actually, multiple consoles since the ps2 had it as well.

Don't be a dick. I was asking as my laptop probably wont run this since it has an integrated graphics card and I know that Age of Conan, while delayed, is supposedly coming to the 360.

[Fragamemnon]

Very nice looking for a MMORPG.  I hope this gets really popular so that Blizzard will hurry up and update WOW with some modern graphics. 

They are already doing some of that in the new Wrath of More of the Same client code, and that's something that a lot of people really haven't given them much credit for.

BTW don't take my WoW bashing too seriously. It's just so very, very nice to be playing a game built for PvP again.

edit: I'd actually be surpirsed to see AoC actually get released on the consoles, even if it is listed. Same for all of the other multiplatform MMOs in development.

[Smooth Groove]

I've only tried the WOW Beta and I thought it was ugly even back then.  If they update WOW's graphics, I might give it another try but I'm kinda worried about starting a game with so many high level players already.  That's why I'm hoping that Warhammer will be good. 

[Fragamemnon]

I've only tried the WOW Beta and I thought it was ugly even back then.  If they update WOW's graphics, I might give it another try but I'm kinda worried about starting a game with so many high level players already.  That's why I'm hoping that Warhammer will be good. 

One of the (many) really smart things that WoW has been doing is ensuring that, generally speaking, the time to level to max level is reduced as they add more levels to go through. So even if you're just starting out it won't take you as long to get from 1-70 as it used to.

Also, to get around dealing with servers with lots of higher level players and established guilds, just find some of the more recently opened new servers and roll a character there. That's another smart thing they have been doing-keeping newer servers around for people that want a fresh start.

[border]

This isn't exactly the genre for graphics whores.  Games need subscribers to make money.  Games need to run properly on a variety of rigs for there to be a lot of subscribers.  So on top of making an engine that will handle large, seamless worlds with dozens of characters on screen.....that engine also needs to be able to run on a $400 Dell box.

I'm not interested in a WoW vs WAR graphics debate, but I'll say that this doesn't exactly look a great better than Wratch of the Lich King. 




It's like WoW with more detailed textures.

[Smooth Groove]

I've only tried the WOW Beta and I thought it was ugly even back then.  If they update WOW's graphics, I might give it another try but I'm kinda worried about starting a game with so many high level players already.  That's why I'm hoping that Warhammer will be good. 

One of the (many) really smart things that WoW has been doing is ensuring that, generally speaking, the time to level to max level is reduced as they add more levels to go through. So even if you're just starting out it won't take you as long to get from 1-70 as it used to.

Also, to get around dealing with servers with lots of higher level players and established guilds, just find some of the more recently opened new servers and roll a character there. That's another smart thing they have been doing-keeping newer servers around for people that want a fresh start.

Sounds good.  Thanks for the info!

[Smooth Groove]

This isn't exactly the genre for graphics whores.  Games need subscribers to make money.  Games need to run properly on a variety of rigs for there to be a lot of subscribers.  So on top of making an engine that will handle large, seamless worlds with dozens of characters on screen.....that engine also needs to be able to run on a $400 Dell box.

I'm not interested in a WoW vs WAR graphics debate, but I'll say that this doesn't exactly look a great better than Wratch of the Lich King. 
It's like WoW with more detailed textures.

Have you tried Age of Conan?  It has impressively high-poly character models. 

[Fragamemnon]

[border]

My point was that WoW v WAR graphics is the Special Olympics.  If you are interested in a "modern" looking game, neither one will really satisfy.

[Eric P]

This isn't exactly the genre for graphics whores.  Games need subscribers to make money.  Games need to run properly on a variety of rigs for there to be a lot of subscribers.  So on top of making an engine that will handle large, seamless worlds with dozens of characters on screen.....that engine also needs to be able to run on a $400 Dell box.

I'm not interested in a WoW vs WAR graphics debate, but I'll say that this doesn't exactly look a great better than Wratch of the Lich King. 
It's like WoW with more detailed textures.

Have you tried Age of Conan?  It has impressively high-poly character models. 

AoC is really great looking esp when you can turn everything on and run it well.  but then there are odd small enclosed spaces which chug.  i thought it was bloom and shadows, but it was just the way the area was done.

[Fragamemnon]

My point was that WoW v WAR graphics is the Special Olympics.  If you are interested in a "modern" looking game, neither one will really satisfy.

This is 100% true, though I think WAR is still a good bit better looking game. Neither are going to bring Oblivion level graphics to the table.

[Eric P]

i am reading through the manual which came w/ my beta client pre-load.  Interesting stuff.  Thankfully they're moving beyond ? and ! for quests. It looked a bit ridiculous in AoC because they were dark and against some backgrounds you couldn't see them.

The Morale abilities sound really cool and have the potential for neat tactical additions beyond mana/ability

for my playstyle nothing really jumps out at me in the classes aside from Engineer or Witch Elves

[Fragamemnon]

Engineers (and the Destruction mirror, the Magus) are pretty weak right now.They are being reworked a bit before the game is released, but as of right now their "defensive caster" mentality isn't playing out that well.

Witch Elves (and their Order counterpart, the Witch Hunter) are pretty solid classes. There's a general thought going around though, that, with the exception of the Chaos Marauder, most of the melee DPS classes just aren't that effective at the moment due to some of the RvR mechanics in the game. Good tanks in particular will make your job impossible-it's quite easy to bring down a melee DPS'ers output on a clothie target by a good 75-80% if you are a good, attentive tank.

[Eric P]

well le pewp.  i like hybrid classes and support, but the healers read more like WoW healers instead of something like the AoC Healers which had offensive capabilities as well

[Draft]

From what I've read even the dedicated healing classes (and I think there's only one per side) are still chock full of damage potential. Just not as much as true DPS classes or even tanks.

[Ganhyun]

well, since people seem to think this is unlikely to come out on 360, i guess i get to test my laptop for the requirements. Hopefully it passes...

[Fragamemnon]

well le pewp.  i like hybrid classes and support, but the healers read more like WoW healers instead of something like the AoC Healers which had offensive capabilities as well

play a warrior priest or disciple of khaine. Those classes are both in terrific shape and are 100% awesome, they do good melee damage, are near impossible to kill, and have a great mechanic to provide heals to their group while administering the beatdown. When my wife and I were messing around with a warrior priest/ironbreaker combo we took down a group of four Destruction players without breaking a sweat.

Edit: the really big reason that people are sorta down in the dumps are that melee DPS only does a bit more damage than an offensively geared and well played tank class (maybe 30% more), while the tank class brings good CC, guard, and is nearly indestructible if you have a couple of healers on them. I think it's the matter of the players adjusting to the RvR metagame more than anything and once people get better (and smarter!) gear and figure out more optimal methods to play the witch elf/witch hunter class, they'll be a bit better off.

this is of course assuming you are facing people that know what they are doing. If you are a witch hunter that knows what you are doing fighting the usual WAR player, you will run with the bright wizards and sorcs for topping the damage charts.

[T234]

Frag, how do you reckon the MAF SEXBOX with it's 2.4 P4, 2 GB of RAM, and Nvidia 6200 will run this?

[FatalT]

Going on Barak Varr as Destruction. Character name is probably going to be FatalT so shoot me a message if you want to group up or something. I'm going to be playing with the Goons.

[Eric P]

this weekend is a preview weekend where they let pre-order people into the closed beta.

i have stuff to do this weekend (go figure) so i won't be able to really get deep into it, but I should be able to get a good handle on some aspects of the game.

i'll post quick impressions

[MyNameIsMethodis]

I'm excited for it, as I NEED a good MMO. Of course, it has to come at the end of summer 

Is there any indication that the masses won't flock from this like they did with LOTRO, AOC, PotBS and every other mmo that isn't WOW?

And what are the classes, in like wow terms?

[Draft]

I'm excited for it, as I NEED a good MMO. Of course, it has to come at the end of summer 

Is there any indication that the masses won't flock from this like they did with LOTRO, AOC, PotBS and every other mmo that isn't WOW?

And what are the classes, in like wow terms?

There are tanks, healers, ranged and melee DPS. Every race/side has unique classes, but they're basically mirrored on the other side (Witch Hunters are Witch Elves, Runepriests are Zealots, etc.)

It sounds like tanks and healers do quite a bit more damage than their WoW counterparts.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

I would like to start a healer up once it comes out.

[Draft]

I would like to start a healer up once it comes out.

There are 3 healers per side. There is the kind of pure healer with the crummiest dps in the game (Runepriest/Zealot), there is a melee hybrid healer, who is the crummiest healer (Warrior Priest/Disciple of Khaine) and there is the caster hybrid healer (Shaman/Archmage.)

I'm also leaning towards the pure healer because Goddamn it that's just what I enjoy.

One nice thing I've learned is that even the pure healer doesn't have a spec that's ONLY healing, like Resto shaman or Holy priest. Instead, the specs are single target focused, AOE focused and the third one is... I'm not sure. But none of them are healing specific, you get offensive and healing abilities all the way down each tree. That's real nice, IMO.

[FatalT]

Oh shit this game is so awesome. I'm playing as a sorcerer on Kraka Drak with the Goon Squad.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

Whats the Goon Squad?

[JustinP]

Whats the Goon Squad?

SomethingAwful forums

[Draft]

I played WoW with the goons.

I'll probably try to avoid them this time.

[Eric P]

public quests rule

warrior priest rules

dark elves are hilarious because it's a continent full of skimpily dressed chicks

[JustinP]

dark elves are hilarious because it's a continent full of skimpily dressed chicks

so it's like L2 dark elves

[pilonv1]

how casual friendly will this be?

[Eric P]

there seems to be a lot to do and a lot of different ways to do it.


there is pve questing

public questing (a bunch of people in one location working together on a series of three increasingly difficult goals)

Scenarios (basically like UT's Domination in MMO form.  take and hold a series of locations for points)

open RVR combat wherein you have sections of maps and then you kill lots of people, but then you'll also get quests in those zones so you have to do specific things amongst the chaos (crazy but fun and doable)

so far this is a lot of fun.  i just need to find a class which appeals to me and works within the confines of the game because my current server is skewed greatly towards the chaos forces so we just get trampled

[Eric P]

ugh.  this is a game which pretty much demands good squads for the scenarios. 

[pilonv1]

so what chances are there of my laptop running this well?

T7200 (C2D @ 2ghz)
2gb Ram (Vista Ultimate)
512mb 7700 Geforce Go

I know it's above minimum but I don't know how playable it will be.

[Kestastrophe]

I want to try out the beta, but I want to know if my PC will run it:

AMD Sempron 3000+
2GB DDR
Radeon 9550 256MB (lol)

[pilonv1]

loulz at least im in better shape than you

[Kestastrophe]

Is anyone else having problems installing the patch when it asks for your account name and password?

[pilonv1]

im still trying to download the beta through bileplanet

[Kestastrophe]

Yeah it took me 4 hours earlier today. Worst....service........ever.......