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Warhammer Online: Dwarf Starting Area Description
A while back, MMORPG.com ran the first part of an interview with Mark Davis and Steve Perlins from EA Mythic. Today, in the second of what has become a three-part series, Mark tells us about the starting area and quests for the Dwarfs in Warhammer Online. Warning, if you don't want to know what happens in your first hours of Dwarf play, you may not want to read this article.
Some time ago, MMORPG.com presented part one of an interview with Warhammer Online's Mark Davis and Steve Perlins. Mark is the game's Deputy Content Director, while Steve is a Director.
Last time, we talked about everything from the IP itself, to closed beta, to the issue of Warhammer being seen as a WoW clone. To round out the interview, the guys told me, in great detail, about the starting areas, and the first few quests in the life of a Dwarf and a Greenskin.
;)
For players who may not already know, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning's RvR system pits warring races against each other, and the Dwarfs and the Greenskins love nothing more than to destroy each other.
These areas were the first ones that the folks over at EA Mythic actually worked on, and so they've had a chance to do them, look them over and make sure that they convey the proper message.
Before we continue any further, this is a revelation of the first few hours of game play for the Dwarf race. In short, spoiler alert!.
Dwarf Starting Area
"The first time we did the Dwarfs," said Mark enthusiastically, "we knew we had to hit beer, we knew we had to hit grudges, we knew we had to get WAR in there, we needed more beer in there... So we did all those things, as we liked it, but it just really didn't 'do it', something was missing."
It was Mark who took the reigns for this portion of the interview, and you could hear the smile in his voice as he talked about the area and the game itself. Whatever the game turns out to be in the end, it's certain that the developers love their game.
;)
"So we went back to the drawing board and we did it again... When we re-did the Dwarf area, everything was phenomenal, I mean, every time I play that area... I've played it maybe 50 times now... I still am giddy and excited about playing it."
He moved on to talk about Bitterstone Mine, an underground mine (originally, they had the Dwarfs starting outdoors, but realized that underground was more appropriate. As you may imagine, the mine, even when players first start their characters, is at war with the Greenskins. Right from step one, players see that the EA Mythic is sticking to the tag line, "WAR is everywhere".
"As you start," he described with relish, "there's a Dwarf Hammerer in front of you and he tells you basically that you have to get up there and help with the battle. Right across the chasm (where the Dwarfs are mining), you can see the entrance, and there are Greenskins everywhere! There's a cannon right there, conveniently located, and the Dwarfs are just blasting these Greekskins away, and they just keep coming and coming.
He went on to tell me that you can get quests to: blow away Greenskins, to go further into the mine, to blow up sections of the mine where Goblins and Squig Herders are coming out, and more.
;)
With the brief description of these quests out of the way, Mark went on to tell me about what he called a central plot; Helga. Helga was the wife of a Dwarf Engineer who was killed in a Greenskin attack.
"...and the Engineer was very, very saddened by the loss of his wife, so he would go and develop the biggest cannon you've ever seen. If you can imagine a cannon and multiply that by ten, you might be getting close to how big Helga is. So, he named the cannon after his wife and he figured that with a cannon that big, not knowing what Greenskin it was that killed his wife, if he fired this cannon enough times, he was bound to hit that Greenskin eventually."
I suppose if I were going to build an enormous death-flinging monstrosity, I'd want to have the same kind of foggy logic on my side. That being said, it's exactly this type of situation that highlights the grandiose nature of the Warhammer franchise, and one of the reasons that so many people are looking forward to this game.
"So, the whole time you're doing quests in this area, you will hear Helga fire. It rumbles the whole cave and the Dwarfs cheer for Helga, every time that cannon fires. Eventually, you make your way outside, and you're on this Dwarf rampart. You're looking out over this amazing abyss as it goes way down the mountain and this giant sky bridge at the far end that you know you need to get to."
;)
This is the point where he gets really animated and excited, as his voice even picks up in speed.
"You're battling Greenskins who are just launching themselves over by catapult. You eventually work your way down there and there's a Dwarf Engineer there. She's dropping barrels of TnT over the side and she asks you to help, so you get to drop these barrels of TnT as they spiral down to a ledge, on the side of a mountain. You watch Greenskins get blown to bits... I can't do that quest enough times, lemme tell ya."
That, I am told, is about the first hour of gameplay that can be expected if you choose to play a Dwarf when Warhammer releases.
"The whole first chapter... we knew we had to teach you about Dwarfs. We had to teach you about Ancestry and why it's so important to them, we had to teach you about grudges, about their mortal enemy, the Greenskins."
He went on to tell me about Eight Peaks, a Dwarf stronghold which has fallen to the Greenskins. Now, the Dwarfs, being... well... Dwarfs, can hardly believe that their stronghold has fallen. With that success, the Greenskins have set their sights on Ever Peak, the Dwarf capital city (which has never fallen). All of this, you learn in your first hour of game play.
It just wouldn't be Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning if we didn't talk about Public Quests. Fortunately for me, Mark's story continued in that area, describing a Dwarf's very first public quest: Apparently, as you move down through the mountains, you find a Greenskin fortress (where they are attacking from).
"When you first step into this fortress you see this War Boss. He's so high in level, so big, that if he were to come down to your level and start fighting you, it would take a hundred or more of you to take him out. He's impossibly powerful, and there's no practical way you're going to take him out. Thankfully, Dwarfs have engineering and ingenuity on their side."
;)
As readers probably already know, Public Quests are often done in stages. In the first stage of this quest, your job is just to thin the herd of Greenskins around you. In the next step, you're helping another engineer who needs gun powder for his mortar cannon. That mortar cannon is going to be use to fire a "Rune of Accuracy" basically, think of it as "tagging" the monster so that our old friend Helga can get a clear and accurate shot. While the engineer is busy getting everything ready, you're kept busy fighting a pair of mini-bosses.
Once you've defeated the mini-bosses, the big baddy yells threats to you, but as he's threatening, Helga fires, causes an avalanche that buries the War Boss, right in mid-sentence.
Well, there you have it guys and gals. That's the introduction to the life of a Dwarf. Originally, I had intended to give you the Greenskin info along with the Dwarf info, but there was just so much there that we're going to break it into two. Stay tuned tomorrow for the other side of the coin as Mark tells us about the Greenskin starting area.
I'm really excited about the idea of public questing. Although it could get tedious if you roll a bunch of alts, the idea of actually progressing and changing the world (even if only for a few hours) is really great.
Every time I read an article I get more and more excited about the release.
Here's hoping for a beta slot!!!
Interestingly enough, in the latest newsletter there's a Beta Journal (A story written by one of the lucky people in beta) about the first hour or so of life as a dwarf, and it very much resembles what's described in this article.
WAR July Beta Journal
It's a conspiracy .....
Perhaps there is something Mr. Wood is not telling us...because of an NDA perhaps?
Them pictures look bland and lack atmosphere :\ Looks very poor and worse than WOW IMO.
I wanted to get some real good info on how the gameplay in this game [RvR PvP]but so far it appears to be nothing more than level vs level?I must have watched over 20 videos of the ea mythic staff and there hyping up of the game ,but got absolutetly nothing for info.All i heard over and over was "We got this really exciting ideas to bring players together to fight" ????What all i got was something about raising a flag?so a level 20 player has a chance in hell of raising this flag with 3 level 30 players staring him in the face? "We got this real cool public questing idea"lmao it's extremely simple and will do nothing to garner a subscription from me.
I know i realize they are not allowed to reveal too much about the game,but all this rambling joking around they do for 90% of there info videos is getting tiresome.Questing/fighting/exploring that is pretty much what we all look for.
So far i havn't found anything to what i want to know.Is there anything in this game that doesn't break the old mold of time=reward and fighting is nothing more tha nLEVEL vs LEVEL ?your race abilities really will have no factor in overcoming a level based system.
Can EVERY player explore the WHOLE game that they are paying for?Or do they need to be at the top of the food chain before they even dare to explore any area that is PK ready?If you have to worry about your level everytime you want to go out and do something the gameplay will get boring REALLY fast.I got better things to do than spend my money to have some 16 hours a day player come by and PK me because i only spend 2 hours on the game a day and are only half the level of these powergamers.
These are the very important things i have been trying to find out before i would even consider playing a PvP or RVR game.Getting excited about some cool looking new dwarf in some cool looking new starting zone will get old real fast.It all will come down to the gameplay,and this game is 100% based on PVP/RvR so is it nothing more than level vs level?really is it?Will the gameplay be fun and exciting for all the gamers independant of there level?I mean not so fun if i join some guild who is going out as level 50 players to engage in some exciting RvR and i am only level 25 because i can't spend the same amount of gametime.
People will take this comment seriously if you post more details wather than saying, " OOOHHH this game is bland even worse than wow". I mean really it tells us nothing. Abetter thing would ahve been to comment on for example the armours Fuzzy detail and Bland washed out colour [ just an example]
If you are a lvl 25 than you go to a tier 3 zone and fight people lvl 20-29. Obviously a lvl 29 will have advantages over a lvl 20, but it depends to be seen how much of an advantage it will be. It seems not as much as in say wow compared to say lvl 50 and 59. Since it seems mythic is making it a big jump when you lvl up and go between tiers, but not as much within a given tier.
Btw, for indo, check fan sites. warhammeralliance.com only-war and such, they generally have quite a bit of info that mythic doesn't have on official site. dev quotes and info from vids from conventions etc. Mythic pod casts mostly contain ither general info on how things will work, or clarifies somethign specific, but most of the general info can be found on fan sites.
Wow... you watched over 20 videos and got no info on the RvR? That's what I've noticed they mostly talk about. Anywho, here's a link for you.
www.warhammeronline.com/english/media/podcast/
Check out Podcast #5 for pretty detailed information on RvR & how it's going to tie into the overall gameplay.
Some basic information about RvR.
1. Yes, the higher your level, the more powerful you get. But that doesn't mean that it's going to be level vs. level. The developers are putting a lot of time into making it very hard to come to lower areas and gank people (or so they've said).
2. Each tier of the game (there are 4 tiers of 10 levels each) will have multiple RvR zones so you can go kill players around your own level without having to worry about higher level players coming down and unbalancing things. You have to remember, this game is being developed from the ground up with RvR in mind. PvP was not an after thought like it was in WoW. Everything in the game that you do centers around the RvR conflict.
3. In addition to the anti-ganking code, there are also going to be instanced RvR areas (similar to Battlegrounds in WoW, but so far it seems that they will be 100% better executed) in every tier of the game that will pit players against the opposing force based on a point system. Basically the higher your level the more points you are worth (and possibly other factors).
So the game does not just say.. ok here's 10 guys on this side & here's 10 guys on this side. It says.. this team is worth 1000 points & they have 12 players. The opposing team team is worth 1000 points based on their level & they have 7 players. So it's now 12 vs. 7, but it's even as far as level balance is concerned.
So that's a lot of info on RvR for you. The next question was about exploration. Well that's a tricky subject. Most games have you follow a path through the game. IE: Levels 1-10 you explore zones A-D, levels 11-20 you explore zones E-G and so on.
WAR will be no different in this regard. You will basically follow a path of progression through the game as your character levels up. BUT you will be able to participate in the RvR effort from the first day you play the game. There are RvR areas for every tier of the game. So while you might not be able to explore the level 40 zones at level 8, you will be able to participate in RvR & you can take your chances exploring the higher tier areas if you so choose, but you will most likely die.
All this is pre-open-beta stuff... showing characters in a starter zone... so lowbie gear...
I admit although they did a good job so far... I'd really like em to be closer to their concept art...
The concept art is phenomenal!!!!!
-The faces of the dwarves just look painted on...
-Very little reflections... no texture difference between beard and armor... is there any reflection maps and bump maps... Gouraud shading?
-That canon is very blocky... it's not a cylinder but some kind of polygonal tube... a very matte one at that...
-Gold (which doesnt look like gold without reflections) seems to ornate everything... in some places it just looks weird... like they painted on gold stripes everywhere?
-I understand dwarven archeticture is supposed to be enormous and make you feel... dwarfed... but it just looks like EVERYTHING is enormous except you... 30' meter square floor tiles? What is that grate in the big canon screen supposed to keep out? the holes in it are like 50' square... they should play with the scales more... making some of this stuff "human sized" would make the enormous parts shine a little more...
-the rockface on the the mountain side really lacks details... it's like Super Mario World for the Gamecube type detailing (none)
This is THE game I plan on playing (and Marvel Universe Online)... so I don't say this to bring it down... but I hope this is not what I see when the game releases.
But anyways... Conan probably put out the worst screenshots ever when they started announcing the game and the graphics look pretty good now... I'm sure the graphics will only get better for WAR... they're already pretty good just a little boxy...
You can't compare with WoW beta either... Blizzards never lets anyone see anything that is unfinished. They don't want people like me ripping their preview to shreads...
... we're lucky Mythic lets us see this stuff even if its unpolished.
also about the grate... I'm thinking not many greenskins are gonna climb all the way up there just to get inside right? It's probably for keeping bigger flying stuff out, like a Wyvern? Or maybe to keep the cannon in
I wouldnt expect too much from the graphics in this game. It is running on an old gen engine. This is kind of a good thing considering it is a pvp based game and you want as many people possible to be able to experience the joy of large scale RvR without their slightly older PCs holding them back.
The open pvp areas anyone can go in even if your tier 4 and your in the starter zone ... however, if you do a choas chicken attacks you and massively debuffs you to the point where your weak ass... Ganking via lvls in WAR .. not happening. There is the 1.1 t vs the 1.9 t and so on gank most likely but i don't think it will be as bad in many other games (because this is a prime goal).
PS not only has mythic told us how pvp and most things will wrok we have also seen them work via vids .. there out there but they can't say the same thing every podcast/interview/video blog/post they make/do.
-ps the engine is not shiny thats for sure but i would not call it old. Like saying adobe photoshop is old... well v. 1.5 is but the most recent incarnation of it is not that old.
WAR is routed in PvP, so though there might be some zones where you might be overpowered if you wander into them too early in your advancement, there will always be level appropriate PvP to engage in. So when those power levelers are at max level in a matter of months and bashing each other across the head, those of us who might only be level 20 or 30 will still be able to have our own level appropriate fun.
None of us will really know if this game will be amazing or lackluster until its released, so all speculation does at this juncture is incite tools on both sides to whine and argue. The reviews will be out when the game hits the shelves, both good and bad, and you can make your judgment based on that rather than the blind speculation we do now.
Well it isnt 10 years old. As old as Trials of Ascension expansion is for DaoC :P
Uhm. "Ever Peak"? What kind of a Karaz-a-Karak interpretation is that?
It's running on the same Engine that Oblivion is running on. Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamebryo, and you'll find out that Fallout 3 is also running on the same Engine. :)
EDIT: To Caladon. I think it's this type of interpretation: http://us.games-workshop.com/games/warhammer/dwarfs/extras/preview/default.htm
The important sentence being:
" But by far the greatest of the Dwarf holds, a nigh-impenetrable mountain bastion, is Karaz-a-Karak or Everpeak."
Well. I think it sounds stupid in English. ;)
I read somewhere in one of the interviews that lighting and shading havent been fully implemented in the game yet. That probably explains the shading and lighting on the face.
I'm a little unclear as to what you're curious about here. I might be misunderstanding you. Are you looking for a game where a level 10 player can take on a level 40 player? What would be the point of progression if you can boot up the game and explore any region on the map without somehow earning it or going from A to B
YES! this is exactly what i am referring to.You are referring progression to be noithing more than level based, i am not.I am saying is it possible to have the skills and tools to take down a bad level 40 player.To me the proper way to make PVP is to allow a player yes to access higher zones through levelling but not necessarily have the skills.I can think of many games that do this.ONe example is RF online you can be level 50 but have under manned skills.IN a game i play such a FFXi you can again be level 75 but with very poor skills either magically or weapon wise.FFXI however is not really designed for PvP and most players know what skills they must raise.
However make the skill so well thought out that a player can be say too much offense but so weak defensively a low level player can take him out.There is all sorts of things a good developed game can do such as fire defense/water defense/ice defense/piercing/blunt defense/piercing /blunt offense ,man there is tons of ways to make it so it's not all level based.
To remove the time=reward,make it so that losing a fight you LOSE skills but not levels,that way players can yes move onto new areas through there level,but ALWAYS have a risk in PvP depending if there build matches up against the other players build.
Example ..a high magic attack level 10 ,might have enough magic damage to take down a WEAKLY designed magic/def level 40 player.,and do it from a distance.To me it isn't that hard at all to make a decent PVP ,of course not perfect ,tweaking is always needed in any game.To simply make 4 realms and a level based game IMO warrants no hype what so ever,but hey ,that's there job to hype the game,they would get fired otherwise.
Thanks for the spoiler alert.
Not reading this article :)
Even though i'd read about the dwarf starting quests before, this is just phenomenal.
Having linked quests like this that tells a Story, and the stories create a sense of History and generate Purpose to your being in the gameworld and, for RvR, the linked 'chapters' progression where everyone can participate, ALL THIS will make WAR a very unique and very excellent and very long lived mmog.
I also belive that any accomplishments/completed storylines will be put in your journall to create a paast history.
What appeals to me as a MMORPG 'traditionalist' is the level of detail and story line. I like a game with depth and substance. If you're character doesn't feel like they are part of the world, then you're left with just existing in one. Though the game is centered around war, at least there is a level of attention to detail.