WAR (Warhammer Online)

During my first few levels the towns are very close and the maps seem relatively small.  Is this game a large open world consisting with a lot of out of the way places?  The type you can get lost in or is it a bunch of smaller maps packed with things to do? My other question is can the game be played as a PVE game as well?  Meaning, are there guilds that will focus on PVP and others that would focus on PVE.  Do the dungeons/raids reward PVE gear or PVP gear?  Would you consider the dungeons/raids well done or amongst the best in the industry?

Thanks

From a lvl 9 characters eyes, the world seems fairly open while not particularly large. So far I've only encountered loading screens when entering scenarios (which sure could be called 'maps').

No this isn't an open world.  The path through the world is very linear.  You will go along the road you see on the map which will lead you to the next map of the same tier.  Each map is about 5 levels of advancement through a fairly linear series of quests.  This is broken up by PQ quests, Senerios where you do pvp battleground like things.  Each pair of maps also has a section in the middle where you can do RvR for strategic points on the map.

When you get to around lvl 6 or so you will be in the middle of the first map at an outpost that leads you to quests for RvR.  There is also a transportation vendor at this outpost.  This will allow you to switch to one of the other two paired areas for the other races.  There are 3 in total.  So if you don't like doing the high elf area you can switch to the dwarf area.  So from a pve content point there is a lot of content.  Also each racial area has a different scenario so you can mix it up some for variety.

Originally posted by ethion

No this isn't an open world.  The path through the world is very linear.  You will go along the road you see on the map which will lead you to the next map of the same tier.  Each map is about 5 levels of advancement through a fairly linear series of quests.  This is broken up by PQ quests, Senerios where you do pvp battleground like things.  Each pair of maps also has a section in the middle where you can do RvR for strategic points on the map.

I think people should start straying off the roads.  There's a lof of things to find off the beaten path.  There are several PQs for every chapter, and you're only lead directly to one, maybe two of them. 

I stumbled on a PQ marked "difficult" after straying off the path in Greenskin Chapter 2.  I would have never known it was there without wandering a bit.  There are areas like this in every area it seems, and I would definitely suggest not letting the game lead you by the hand. 

Go exploring, there are things to find. :p

The game is focused around RvR. If you're playing this game ONLY to play the dungeons you will be disapointed. The dungeons are FANTASTIC. However, the game is not centered around them, and unlike other games, the content will not be adjusted to help folks in PVE. The game is balanced for group RvR, if you are expecting your class to solo better in PvE, or provide more group dps in PVE, or anything in pve ONLY you are mistaken. Mythic will NEVER do that. Look at DAOC, not gonna happen. Either you like the game and dig the RVR or you hate it. If you hate it the wow forums are  ------->

Originally posted by checkthis500

Originally posted by ethion

No this isn't an open world.  The path through the world is very linear.  You will go along the road you see on the map which will lead you to the next map of the same tier.  Each map is about 5 levels of advancement through a fairly linear series of quests.  This is broken up by PQ quests, Senerios where you do pvp battleground like things.  Each pair of maps also has a section in the middle where you can do RvR for strategic points on the map.

I think people should start straying off the roads.  There's a lof of things to find off the beaten path.  There are several PQs for every chapter, and you're only lead directly to one, maybe two of them. 

I stumbled on a PQ marked "difficult" after straying off the path in Greenskin Chapter 2.  I would have never known it was there without wandering a bit.  There are areas like this in every area it seems, and I would definitely suggest not letting the game lead you by the hand. 

Go exploring, there are things to find. :p

Indeed, I love to expore. I get in more trouble that way.

There's definitely a ton of content packed into the maps (which can make them seem small), but if you try to just run across a map, you'll see that they're actually pretty big zones.

Some of the areas can seem claustrophobic due to changes in the terrain, forests, etc. but once you branch out and get accustomed with each zone, you'll start to see paths and areas you hadn't noticed before.

Once you start exploring you can find yourself a long way from the main road.

Originally posted by checkthis500

Originally posted by ethion

No this isn't an open world.  The path through the world is very linear.  You will go along the road you see on the map which will lead you to the next map of the same tier.  Each map is about 5 levels of advancement through a fairly linear series of quests.  This is broken up by PQ quests, Senerios where you do pvp battleground like things.  Each pair of maps also has a section in the middle where you can do RvR for strategic points on the map.

I think people should start straying off the roads.  There's a lof of things to find off the beaten path.  There are several PQs for every chapter, and you're only lead directly to one, maybe two of them. 

I stumbled on a PQ marked "difficult" after straying off the path in Greenskin Chapter 2.  I would have never known it was there without wandering a bit.  There are areas like this in every area it seems, and I would definitely suggest not letting the game lead you by the hand. 

Go exploring, there are things to find. :p

If you just do the quests from the outposts you will encounter everything off the road which doesn't really account for that much space....  There are quests in most cases that send you to all the PQ areas and that send you into areas where their might be any random quest givers.  I'm only lvl 16 but having played almost all areas to lvl 10 it is pretty consistent and very well polished in the layout.

Now if you are an explorer there are things to find.  There are little clickies hidden around that will give you lore and little rewards.  You can probably still find these while questing but you definitely want to keep your eyes open.

Originally posted by checkthis500

Originally posted by ethion

No this isn't an open world.  The path through the world is very linear.  You will go along the road you see on the map which will lead you to the next map of the same tier.  Each map is about 5 levels of advancement through a fairly linear series of quests.  This is broken up by PQ quests, Senerios where you do pvp battleground like things.  Each pair of maps also has a section in the middle where you can do RvR for strategic points on the map.

I think people should start straying off the roads.  There's a lof of things to find off the beaten path.  There are several PQs for every chapter, and you're only lead directly to one, maybe two of them. 

I stumbled on a PQ marked "difficult" after straying off the path in Greenskin Chapter 2.  I would have never known it was there without wandering a bit.  There are areas like this in every area it seems, and I would definitely suggest not letting the game lead you by the hand. 

Go exploring, there are things to find. :p

Yeah, T1 areas might seem a bit small (though they really aren't tbh) and linear.. but that's normal taking into account that T1 is basically a tutorial part of the game that you level out in a day. T2 areas seem much larger (haven't timed running through any of them) and open. There's quite much more room to breathe - I remember entering Troll Country for the first time and flipping map on and off, comparing the landmarks I saw in hazy distance with map features. "Oh my god, this is huge" was my first thought. The second was "There's 6 of T2 areas, omg" and finally "And they're supposed to get even bigger in later tiers. zomg!"

That's when I started worrying about population being too spread out but we'll have to see how it's gonna pan out when population matures a bit.

As for is it open... it is pretty open within a tier in a racial pairing. Transitions between the two zones that are directly connected is almost completely smooth - like WoW but with a slight stutter. Imo if they wanted to Mythic could have made a completely "open" and seamless world but decided not to because of the lore. Some areas that are connected by paths are actually hundreds, even thousands of miles distant in the Old World (the WH world). If they made it seamless they would have to constrict themselves to a very small portion of the world and we wouldn't have nearly as much variety as we do now.

The way they're doing it right now is leaving them a lot of room for expansions featuring new zones. In Wow you have to raise a new continent or make an interdimensional rift to add new landscapes. In WAR it is really easy to simply add new zones between the old ones (on the physical map that is.)