If Mythic decided to forget about trying to fix population issues between two factions and instead released an expansion that created a third faction that would have conflict with both sides; would you be interested in playing a third faction made up of let's say the Undead, Skaven and Ogres?

Well I was thinking more along the lines of Beastmen, Skaven and Ogres because that would make sense. As I understand it the Ogres essentially can cooperate with any of the races but have greater tendency lending assistance to chaos like factions. The Skaven themselves do their best to ensure the other races regard them as beastmen to hide their identity while they work to bring about their destruction. The beastmen are simply hated by practically everyone.

So GW could adopt an idea where the Skaven in their biggest push for power make a portion of the beastmen stronger to hide their activities. This alliance of convience is extended to the Ogres who simply need to be promised they'll get lots of gold and food for assisting the beastmen.

My only problem with that is I doubt many would be thrilled with playing the Skaven or more importantly the beastmen. Races like the undead are far more popular.

Still I'm just speculating whether or not Mythic would consider creating a third faction since it worked so well in their last game.

A neutral patchwork faction?  I honestly don't think it would work.  A neutral faction would be at serious risk of being constantly overwhelmed by players from both Chaos & Order factions.  I think it's safe to say that if a new playable race finds its way into the game you can bet it will have it's Chaos/Order counterpart included as well.

To paraphrase Paul Barnett from an interview he gave last year, "No matter how much trouble you go to creating cool races like orks, dwarves, goblins, etc. and the mythos behind each of them most people prefer to play humans or similar races of the attractive persuasion (i.e. elves)." 

Basically Mythic acknowledges there may be faction balance issues and is taking measures to address them.  The biggest and most obvious measure implemented by Mythic is the huge emphasis placed on instanced scenarios which, according to one of the official WAR podcasts, grant the most victory points out of all the pvp/rvr venues.  Obviously Battlegrounds and Skirmishes (incidental pvp) will be the most problematic as those take place on the world map where AI controlled Dogs of War allies won't be a factor.  If population imbalance proves to be an even bigger issue than Mythic anticipated I wouldn't be surprised if they; 1) grant even more VIctory Points to instanced scenarios and/or 2) lessen the importance of the existing Battlegrounds and add more instanced scenarios to compensate.

The Skaven are simply too cool and nasty to be overlooked in an expansion.  Nasty, furry, diseased little bast--ds running around wreaking havoc.  Add to the mix the possibility of vast underground battles and the Skaven are too much fun to not make the cut.  Sign me up!  If the Skaven become a playable race I think it's safe to say the Lizardmen would be the only logical race to counter them.  Both races already have a long history of conflict and both spend most of their time underground.

I think it's more realistic to expect Wood Elves or Bretonnians vs. Beastmen or Ogres (or Tomb Kings) to make the cut as the first new playable races instead of Skaven or Lizardmen.  However I think the cool & unique factor regarding Skaven vs. Lizardmen is off the scale compared to the other ones I listed.

Mythic has historicaly made swift and vast changes for the sake of pvp balance. I wouldnt worry about them FAILING at  tha ballance of a 2sided game when they had 5 years of priod knowledge in doing something as hard as the balance of a THREE SIDED war in dark age of camelot.

its like wondering if your parents can raise a newborn child eventhough they just got finished raising your 5 year old tripplet sisters.

Lore be damned, races be damned. if you make a class sexy people will play it.

If you look at polls, most of them say that the least played race will be dwarf.

I think this may have to do with why the Ironbreaker is the most powerful charachter in pvp combat....

Originally posted by kraiden

Lore be damned, races be damned. if you make a class sexy people will play it.

If you look at polls, most of them say that the least played race will be dwarf.

I think this may have to do with why the Ironbreaker is the most powerful charachter in pvp combat....

Why all the hate for Dwarves?  If WoW's racial populations are any indication then the Greenskins and Dwarf populations should be about equal.  However the inclusion of Goblins could prove to be a wildcard variable here.  Goblins are a unique race rarely seen or playable in crpgs and mmorpgs so their 'new and exotic' factor might tip the numbers game in favor of the Greenskins.

The Ironbreaker's unusual effectiveness is either a result of poorly played Orks or simply a class balance issue that will be worked out when the game is eventually released.  There's no way Mythic is going to balance classes based on racial population projections, people will go apes--t and protest like mad if that happens.

Based on all the observations of the beta making the rounds at the various game days in Paris, Toronto & Atlanta it seems either the Orks need some boosts to their powers or the Dwarves need some penalties because in every single video of the Mourkain Temple scenario the Dwarves seem to dominate for no apparent reason.  One class that definitely needs some nerfing is the Rune Priest, in every single video it utterly dominated combat.

Originally posted by Xanrn
Lizardmen don't spend most of their time underground, they live in Jungles.

I stand corrected.  But which is sexier, Skaven or Lizardmen?

Originally posted by Spinocus

Originally posted by Xanrn
Lizardmen don't spend most of their time underground, they live in Jungles.

I stand corrected.  But which is sexier, Skaven or Lizardmen?

Originally posted by kraiden

Mythic has historicaly made swift and vast changes for the sake of pvp balance. I wouldnt worry about them FAILING at  tha ballance of a 2sided game when they had 5 years of priod knowledge in doing something as hard as the balance of a THREE SIDED war in dark age of camelot.

its like wondering if your parents can raise a newborn child eventhough they just got finished raising your 5 year old tripplet sisters.

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by kraiden

Mythic has historicaly made swift and vast changes for the sake of pvp balance. I wouldnt worry about them FAILING at  tha ballance of a 2sided game when they had 5 years of priod knowledge in doing something as hard as the balance of a THREE SIDED war in dark age of camelot.

its like wondering if your parents can raise a newborn child eventhough they just got finished raising your 5 year old tripplet sisters.

And if most the combat is going to be instanced,  to fixed sized groups, then I want to play on the side that has the fewest players. I remember in WOW when the horde could get into the BG's almost at will, while I stood around 20 minutes to an hour hoping to pvp.

Originally posted by mutantmagnet

If Mythic decided to forget about trying to fix population issues between two factions and instead released an expansion that created a third faction that would have conflict with both sides; would you be interested in playing a third faction made up of let's say the Undead, Skaven and Ogres?