In the past month or two some (Massively is an example) interpreted some very generic statements by Mythic as a signal that there wouldn't have been new classes (and new major content additions) in Warhammer Online for a long time. Personally, I always begged to differ with such an interpretation, since Mark Jacobs had always hinted pretty clearly that the timeline for major content patches was roughly every three months.
Turns out I was right (am I not always? :P ), as several teasers sent around for a major announcement coming on January the 29th hint (in a way that really cannot be interpreted differently, looks like subtlety isn't Mythic's forte) that it will pertain the soon to be added new classes. The Dwarf Slayer and the Orc Choppa.
While the choppa isn't exactly a new class, since it's been removed from the game prior to launch (despite the fact that the ones that tried it during the beta found it generally quite fun to play and very well done graphically), the slayer is entirely new, and replaced furor populi (by public acclamation) the original dwarf melee DPS, the seemingly dull Hammerer.
The incoming announcement will most definately make many warhammer fans happy (the ones that didn't already guess due to the previous hints scattered here and there). Destruction players have always mourned the loss of the dual-wielding choppa and it's cool looking and hard hitting berserk action, while order-oriented players, expecially after seeing the very first cinematic trailer, always groaned about the fact that Mythic initially decided to go with the hammerer, instead of the Slayer that was considered much more iconic and cool, both due to his looks and it's peculiar background.
So, what in the world are this "Choppa" and this "Slayer" I'm talking about?
The Choppa, in it's traditional Warhammerish sense, isn't really a "class" or a "career" by definition, but simply the name by which Orcs call one of their favourite weapons. Due to their relatively unrefined nature, Orcs tend to name their implements of pain and killing by their effect, and the choppa is exactly that, something that chops, Exactly like the Basha is something that bashes. This means that the definition of "Choppa" applies to a wide range of variations of a nice (or not so nice), thick slab of metal shaped in the middle between a sword and an axe, which primary function is chopping the enemy (and even some friends) to pieces. Applying the concept to the MMORPG, the Choppa becomes a marauding orc specialized in the use of two of such lovely tools to cause the most damage possible in the smallest amount of time. Nifty, isn't it?
The Slayer digs deeper in the warhammer background, as a truly iconic representative of his race, expecially in it's warhammerish variation.
When a dwarf undergoes a personal ordeal that persuades him that he's lost his honor, he'll shave part of his head, put up a mohawk, dye his hair and beard fiery orange, and take up the Oath of the Slayer. Then he will wander the world alone or in groups for the rest of their life in search of a glorious death against some terrible enemy, dragons, demons... that kind of "terrible".
Now, many slayers die soon, as they fullfill their oath while fighting some monster that happens to be stronger then them. Some, though, happen to be stronger than the monsters they face, and become legendary heroes, veterans of hundreds of suicidal battles.
It's pretty easy to understand why this career is considered very cool and compelling, so it's safe to assume that the two new classes will probably strenghten the ranks of Order further. The choppa is very nice, but the slayer is probably going to cause a lot of rerolls.
In addition to this, I'm pretty sure that Mythic is going to announce quite a few more surprises on the 29th. Mark Jacobs has been on a spree on the VNboards, telling that the announcement will be quite extensive, in addition to this, the clues given were really too clear and easy to interpret. Mythic has probably something more up their sleeve, or they wouldn't have spoiled the surprise this extensively.
I'm sure many of the Mythic haters out there will harshly criticize any sorth of enthusiasm about the news at hand, saying that Mythic is just introducing two classes that they removed to begin with. I personally don't care that much about this kind of bull droppings. It's additional content (and quite important) compared to what we had at release, and any additional content is good content. 4 new classes on top of the 20 present at release in just 6 months is definately unparaleled in the whole history of the MMO genre. Gotta hand it to Mythic, they know how to roll in new stuff into their game.
In any case, we need to wait for the 29th and see what happens. Personally I can't wait, so stay tuned for additional coverage when the time comes.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Warhammer Online: Fortress sieges capped?
During the last few days Mythic announced the addition of a cap to the population of fortress siege battles as a preliminary solution to the problem of server crashes during such usually massive battles. The community has shown some mixed feeling about it, but some pretty isolated but vocal element went way too far on the way of trolling.
Just to spank one to spank them all, you can read this article at MMOCrunch, that pretty much shows how people can totally misunderstand (probably on purpose) what the changes brought to the game.
Let's shed some light on the matter, shall we?
Mythic implemented a level-based population cap just during the siege, which removes from it low level players when such cap is reached.
The result of such action is simply to weed out those MANY lowbies that went to fortress sieges just to leech xp and rps, and that took as much server resources as a level 40 characters, while not contributing at all to the fight.
I've been in several fortress sieges, and the amount of level 20 (or lower) people you see leeching during the siege itself is a very sizeable percentage of the total. A sizeable amount that the battle can definately do without, as they're nothing else than crash/lag inducing entities that contribute to the fight less than the lowest level fortress guards.
Does it take away from the "massiveness" of the battle? Not one bit. The caps are still very high, and let in a number of people in that can be easily defined "massive", in spite of what Paragus drools all over his blog.
It's fun how he accuses others to be "PR monkeys", while he's the one that tries (and fails miserably, it seems, looking at the comments on his blog) to spin around the facts.
He tries to point down a lack of coherence between "capping a zone" and "allowing more people to partecipate". Too bad that the idiot evidently and purposedly cut the sentence, warping it's meaning. The complete quote qould be: "allowing more people to partecipate to capital city sieges", not to fortress battles.
It's pretty evident how cutting down the lag (which favors the defenders a lot) and removing the crashes problem makes successfully attacking fortresses much more viable and doable (even for the underdog realm, numbers-wise), and increases the number of city sieges considerably, thus making them much more accessible to more people.
The conclusion is even more laughable, as he compares warhammer to age of conan. Too bad that in age of conan ALL sieges are limited to 48 vs 48 people. In Warhammer the limits are a ton less restrictive and ONLY applied to fortress sieges. All things summed up, the only result he attains with his pathetic attempt to a PR spin is making a fool of himself.
On a much brighter note, on this thread on the VNboards Mark Jacobs confirmed that the changes will be followed by further, deeper ones: the fotresses will probably be placed in their own zones (which will allow Mythic to raise the caps, making sieges even more massive than they are with the current cap), while the lower level players will be probably given other tasks to complete during the siege, to contribute to it while not influencing the performace for the level 40s, which is most definitely a very good idea.
Just a further signal of the fact that all the doomsayers really don't know what they're talking about.
Just to spank one to spank them all, you can read this article at MMOCrunch, that pretty much shows how people can totally misunderstand (probably on purpose) what the changes brought to the game.
Let's shed some light on the matter, shall we?
Mythic implemented a level-based population cap just during the siege, which removes from it low level players when such cap is reached.
The result of such action is simply to weed out those MANY lowbies that went to fortress sieges just to leech xp and rps, and that took as much server resources as a level 40 characters, while not contributing at all to the fight.
I've been in several fortress sieges, and the amount of level 20 (or lower) people you see leeching during the siege itself is a very sizeable percentage of the total. A sizeable amount that the battle can definately do without, as they're nothing else than crash/lag inducing entities that contribute to the fight less than the lowest level fortress guards.
Does it take away from the "massiveness" of the battle? Not one bit. The caps are still very high, and let in a number of people in that can be easily defined "massive", in spite of what Paragus drools all over his blog.
It's fun how he accuses others to be "PR monkeys", while he's the one that tries (and fails miserably, it seems, looking at the comments on his blog) to spin around the facts.
He tries to point down a lack of coherence between "capping a zone" and "allowing more people to partecipate". Too bad that the idiot evidently and purposedly cut the sentence, warping it's meaning. The complete quote qould be: "allowing more people to partecipate to capital city sieges", not to fortress battles.
It's pretty evident how cutting down the lag (which favors the defenders a lot) and removing the crashes problem makes successfully attacking fortresses much more viable and doable (even for the underdog realm, numbers-wise), and increases the number of city sieges considerably, thus making them much more accessible to more people.
The conclusion is even more laughable, as he compares warhammer to age of conan. Too bad that in age of conan ALL sieges are limited to 48 vs 48 people. In Warhammer the limits are a ton less restrictive and ONLY applied to fortress sieges. All things summed up, the only result he attains with his pathetic attempt to a PR spin is making a fool of himself.
On a much brighter note, on this thread on the VNboards Mark Jacobs confirmed that the changes will be followed by further, deeper ones: the fotresses will probably be placed in their own zones (which will allow Mythic to raise the caps, making sieges even more massive than they are with the current cap), while the lower level players will be probably given other tasks to complete during the siege, to contribute to it while not influencing the performace for the level 40s, which is most definitely a very good idea.
Just a further signal of the fact that all the doomsayers really don't know what they're talking about.
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