General Discussion

Recently, Staff Writer Carolyn Koh had the opportunity to speak with Brian Wheeler, a Designer on EA Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The questions this time revolve around the overarching war taking place in the game. Koh also presents an example of how the city siege component of the game works.

MMORPG.com:

What is the group size in Warhammer and what mechanisms are there for communication in RvR, especially for the larger campaigns?

Brian Wheeler:

Group size is 6, but players can form a Battlegroup (basically a group of groups) up to 24 players. Obviously, these will have their own unique chat channels for player communication, but we'll also have RvR specific chat channels that anyone can join.

Read the whole thing here.

No group rewards, and raids are 24 man, eh?

So looking forward to this game.. meaningful PVP, city sackings, seige warfare, groups of 24 organised players... I like!

Not sure the whole incite racial hatred thing is very PC, but whatever, it will make for some passion on the battlefield!

WTB Warhammer!

Excellent interview and good information.

But with the description of the city sieges I expect the WAR forums will start to flame with whiner who can't grasp the current limitations of technology.   The mechanic Mythic has proposed seems like a reasonable compromise between gameplay and bandwidth.    Keep in mind, they haven't said how many players will be on each side of the Inner City conflicts. 

Originally posted by Alienovrlord

Excellent interview and good information.

But with the description of the city sieges I expect the WAR forums will start to flame with whiner who can't grasp the current limitations of technology.   The mechanic Mythic has proposed seems like a reasonable compromise between gameplay and bandwidth.    Keep in mind, they haven't said how many players will be on each side of the Inner City conflicts. 

The Inner-Outer city mechanic is really really great. It makes the players gather and focus on something instead of turning Sieges into a chaotic free-for-all where everyone's running around like lemmings (fuck "realism", by the way ). It also has the added bonus to limit the amount of stuff charged on your computer and your internet connection by loading just certain portions of the city instead of having it all up at the same time as whatever the number of players there will be (probably plenty if battlegroups are made up of 24 people). Also, the fact that the city "closes" to the losers for a while will give players a lot to think about when it comes to fighting the other realm, since you won't be able to just die and respawn to go on fighting!

I'm liking these ideas so far. I hope they keep up the good work.

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But with the description of the city sieges I expect the WAR forums will start to flame with whiner who can't grasp the current limitations of technology. The mechanic Mythic has proposed seems like a reasonable compromise between gameplay and bandwidth. Keep in mind, they haven't said how many players will be on each side of the Inner City conflicts.

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Technology isn't the problem. The real problem lies in the inability for companies to 'control' the players and what they do. If everything would be destructable and captureable the companies can't handle it. The real problem lies with the companies and the 'old thinking'.

And with this game they selected Warhammer to use as their IP for the game. Now they have to live up to the expectations of the players. If they can't they had to use another IP!

Originally posted by Scorn_Arkane

No group rewards, and raids are 24 man, eh?

Lets break this down, as when I first read that, this is what I thought. Upon rereading it though, I discovered that it was not at all what was said in regard to group rewards.

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The group-based lack of rewards is only referring to RVR scenarios (otherwise known as battlegrounds in Warcraft)., not to group based dungeon diving or other scenarios not directly related to RvR. You do however get renown points upon completion of the scenario.

I enjoyed reading the description on city sieges. There was some stuff I never heard of. Like the defending faction doesn't respawn in the city when they die and are being invaded. You know what that means? No turtling! w00t! I think the best part will of course be the initial fight in the outer city and seeing the Order (or Dectruction) try to take it back afterwards.

Originally posted by butters88

I enjoyed reading the description on city sieges. There was some stuff I never heard of. Like the defending faction doesn't respawn in the city when they die and are being invaded. You know what that means? No turtling! w00t! I think the best part will of course be the initial fight in the outer city and seeing the Order (or Dectruction) try to take it back afterwards.

I am curious about the retaking of the city too. It would interest me to see if that is able to be accomplished. The original early discussions by the devs mentioned that the city would be taken, then the opposing faction of that city would have time to revel in their success, and play, and then the devs would make it VERY hard for that opposing faction to remain in the city after a certain amount of time. (I assume this means that they would spawn extremely hard bosses of the city's faction to retake the city and eject out all opposing faction members).

However, this recent post makes it sound like there will be quite a bit of time (maybe even days) for the opposing faction to galavant through the town.

Originally posted by Alienovrlord

Excellent interview and good information.

But with the description of the city sieges I expect the WAR forums will start to flame with whiner who can't grasp the current limitations of technology.   The mechanic Mythic has proposed seems like a reasonable compromise between gameplay and bandwidth.    Keep in mind, they haven't said how many players will be on each side of the Inner City conflicts. 

I agree. However, since everybody contributes to the war effort, there must be some fair way in which players are selected to fight in the siege. Does anybody know how that is going to be handled? (e.g. players with most renown since last sack).