Nordenwatch scenario weekend in Warhammer

Mythic has just announced their first special scenario weekend for Warhammer Online. The Nordenwatch scenario will be available to players across all tiers and will grant a unique title and an additional 10% renown and experience from now until Monday, May 4, 2009 at 8:00AM EDT.

Those familiar with Warhammer scenarios will know that Nordenwatch is usually only available to characters in tier 1 (ranks 1-11) and is widely considered one of the best scenarios in the game. Nordenwatch is an island off the coast of Nordland containing a lighthouse, barracks, and lookout fortress. Each of these three locations is capturable and grants points the as you hold it. The zone's terrain and openness make for some truly epic battles.

When the teams are evenly matched, it's anyone's game and stealth capture tactics are well rewarded. It's not uncommon to see all manner of RvR in this scenario from zerg rushes to smaller 3-on-3 skirmishes to 1-on-1 action. It will be interesting to see how this scenario plays out in tiers 2 to 4, as players generally get more powerful crowd control abilitites as they rank up. A well-placed knockback at the fortress or lighthouse could result in a long swim back to the action.

Second Life pwns Gordon Freeman, Warhammer Online, others

Wagner James Au at New World Notes is carrying some surprising data from ratings giant, Nielsen Media Research. From actual measurements of usage across over 180,000 homes in the USA, Linden Lab's Second Life (paradoxically measured under the 'PC games' category) rates the number two most played title, just behind World of Warcraft.

Forget Warhammer Online, or EVE Online, they don't even make the top ten. World of Warcraft and Second Life beat out Gordon Freeman (Half Life 2), Civilization IV and StarCraft. As for actual weekly usage, Second Life is top of the pops at an average of 760 minutes per user per week. World of Warcraft earns the top spot with 653 minutes per user per week, but has a whole lot more users.

How about Google's YouTube, the 800 pound gorilla and market leader of online video? Just 47 minutes per week (figure from Cnet).

Facebook? 84 minutes per week. Myspace, just 10.5 minutes per week (figures from ITProPortal).

This data is measured from actual homes, as we mentioned. Almost 200,000 of them, so it isn't just data that's centric to the hardcore gamer. This is a random sampling of ordinary people.

The9 releasing World of Warcraft clone or Warhammer Online?

The9's loss of publishing rights for World of Warcraft in China has been in the news quite a bit. Surrounded by rumours of bankruptcy in the wake of losing their biggest license, the company survived and it has plans. Now both the Wall Street Journal and our sister site are reporting about their newest venture: World of Fight.

At the moment all we know about this mysterious new title comes from the trailer website. For starters the teaser site uses a font familiar to anyone who plays WoW. Indeed the web address itself (www.wofchina.com) is but a letter away from the official Chinese WoW site. However that weird stargate-esque contraption is straight out of a Warhammer Online starter area and The9 is partially owned by giants Electronic Arts -- who also publish Warhammer in North America. It could easily be a cheap ploy to get gamers interested in a WoW clone or a legitimate teaser site for Warhammer with a terrible Chinglish title. We won't know for sure until the 'gates' open but when that could be has not yet been disclosed. We'll bring you more as soon as we find out.

Warhammer holds its ground with 300k subs

A minor note in EA's most recent earnings report revealed that as of March 31, 2009, Warhammer Online had over 300,000 subscribers, which is right about where it was at in December 2008. What's that we hear in the distance? I do believe it's the sound of thousands of haters and fanboys doing glorious forum battle.

Three hundred thousand players is actually a pretty good number these days. In fact, CCP was extremely happy to announce hitting the 300k+ mark today, on EVE's 6th birthday. Most MMO analysts would probably say WAR is one of the top 5 subscription MMOs in Europe/North America.

On the other hand, EA and Mythic can't be too happy about the current population situation since Mark Jacobs has made a couple famous remarks about population numbers in the past. The first is that WAR would be successful if it had north of 500k subscribers. The second is that 250k subscribers doesn't look too good to investors when you've made an initial investment of over $50M and have high maintenance costs. You might also want to factor in that Mythic started a recruit-a-friend program, free trial, and launched in Russia all during the period of the quarter being reported on.

With Aion set for release in fall 2009, WAR may soon face some stiff competition on the PvP/RvR front. A lot may be riding on Mythic's new live expansion, The Land of the Dead set for release this summer.

Use level 40 Sorc buffs on low level groupmate in RvR areas

I discovered this last night while trying a few things out using multi accounts.

I am sure this could be applied with other classes as well, but this is only going to cover a warhammer level 40 Sorc grouping with a level 10 of any other class.

Group both characters while NOT flagged for RvR. (in the warcamp is good).

Cast both Sorc buffs (one deals damage to attacker when they hit you, the other deals extra damage when you hit others).

The 40 Sorc and the lower level character will both have the buffs, they last 60 minutes or till death.

Now, the game will disable these buffs on a lower level character if the Sorc is ALIVE, but if the level 40 Sorc is DEAD, then the full damage of the buffs will apply to the lower level character.

How you get this to work is the following way.

1) Buff up both characters in the Warcamp that you plan on fighting at with the lower level character (make sure neither is flagged).

2) Get the level 40 Sorc killed, but do NOT release. Leave him laying on the ground for the full 5 minutes. (while the Sorc is DEAD, the buffs will have full level 40 effect on the lower level character).

3) While the Sorc is dead, you have 5 minutes to run around on the low level character and RAPE anyone you come across. The biggest effect for this exploit is in tier 1, because of the shear damage these buffs dish out.

4) When the Sorc's res timer auto resses, then stop RvRing with the lower level character and go get the Sorc killed off again. (you can jump off ledges or run into enemy warcamp to get killed by guards, easy way)

5) If your lower level character dies, they will need to be rebuffed, so just release both your Sorc and the lower level character and both will appear at the warcamp together, unflagged. Just recast both buffs and repeat steps.

Enjoy the rape.

These buffs do the following damage.

If you get hit, you deal 200 damage back to attacker.
If you hit others, you deal anywhere from 180-300 damage additional.

In tier 1, most players only have 1000-1500 HP at level 10 or 11. So if you use these buffs you can slaughter full groups by yourself.

Warhammer Hacks

Warhammer: 63 Servers Getting Shutdown

Mythic Entertainment announced yesterday that it will be axing a total of 63 Warhammer Online servers, 43 in North America/Oceania and 20 in Europe, in their efforts to stabilize and consolidate the game's sparse population.

Gamasutra reported earlier on this move:

The closures are part of an ongoing effort to consolidate the game's online population, which started some months ago with a free transfer offer to more popular servers. The now-compulsory moves have been completed this week and the empty servers are set to close.

Mythic was recently forced to confirm layoffs in its customer support and QA teams, although the developer insisted this was not unusual for a post-launch massively multiplayer online game.

Although Warhammer Online attracted 500,000 registrations in its launch week, current subscriber levels are now at 300,000. Both Mythic and publisher Electronic Arts have indicated they remain committed to the game.

The complete list along with a handy FAQ is now made available on the War Herald:

On Tuesday, March 10, we will be performing a final transfer of characters from several of the servers that have been, in the past, a source server (ie. we have offered transfers off of). Please read on for all the details, including a list of affected servers.

Characters on the source servers listed below will all be consolidated onto the corresponding destination server. All source servers will eventually be closed.

Source/Destination Servers
Tower of Doom: Magnus
Heldenhammer: Ungrim
Thorgrim: Monolith
Sea of Malice: Badlands
Chaos Wastes: Dark Crag
Anlec: Darklands
Middenheim: Gorfang
Mordheim: Gorfang
Wasteland: Gorfang
Averheim: Iron Rock
Be'lakor:Iron Rock
Rakarth:Iron Rock
Lucan: Ironclaw
Lustria: Ironclaw
Marius: Ironclaw
Drifting Castle: Ironfist
Grimnir: Ironfist
Thorgrim: Ironfist
Bretonnia: Ironfist
Tor Achere: Magnus
Tower of Doom: Magnus
Ungrim: Magnus
Azazel: Monolith
Drakwald: Monolith
Avelorn: Ostermark
Skavenblight: Ostermark
Tor Elyr: Ostermark
White Tower: Ostermark
Eerie Downs: Praag
Hochland: Praag
Wolfenburg: Praag
Wurtbad: Praag
Bechafen: Praag
Kragg: Skull Throne
Reikland: Skull Throne
Kislev: Volkmar
Marienburg: Volkmar
Red Eye Mountain: Volkmar
Sea of Claws: Volkmar
Heldenhammer: Vortex
Saphery: Vortex
Sylvania: Vortex
Ulthuan: Vortex

What will transfer over with my character?
All items in your character's inventory (equipped or otherwise) and bank vault
All character info (quests, Tome Unlocks, etc.)
Friends lists
Guild info, including the entire guild, guild vault, and guild association
Ignore lists
What will not transfer over with my characters?
Items that are currently listed for Auction
Guild alliances
In-game mail and attachments (both in your inbox and en route to your inbox)
Please note: This includes promotional and Collector's Edition items. You must retrieve them from your mailbox before transferring, or they will be lost.
What could make the transfer fail?
If you have characters on a destination server that are of the opposite realm as your characters on your source server, you will not be able to transfer your characters.
If a character's name is not allowed, you will not be able to transfer your character.
If you have no open characters slots on the destination server, the transfer will not be able to complete.
If the character has never logged in to the game, the transfer will not be able to complete.
If the character name is reserved, the transfer will not be able to complete.
What should I do if the transfer does not complete?
In the event that a transfer cannot be completed, you will need to perform the transfer manually by logging into Account Management.

What should I do if my character name is already in use on the destination server?
In the event that your character's name is already in use on the destination server, you will be prompted to rename your character when you log in.

What if I don't want to be on the server I'm being transferred to?
Starting on March 11th, all characters still present on the source servers, along with all the characters that we have transferred over to the destination servers will be permitted a one-time free transfer to any other server of the same type, regardless of level.

Despite the annoyances that may occur due to the consolidations, this move should prove positive to the overall player experience. Let us know if you're one of the affected players and tell us about your experiences with this transfer.

[via Gamasutra]

WAR: The Mind Behind Land of the Dead

Mythic's senior designer Gabe Amantangelo has penned a terrific article about The Land of the Dead, the upcoming 'live expansion' for Warhammer Online. Amantangelo goes into the creative process from inspiration to reality.

It all Begins with an Idea

Everyone on the Dungeons and Encounters team remembers fondly the dungeon crawls in DAoC and UO - the face-offs, the race, the thrill of the tension when deciding whether or not to kill the monster that drops the loot first and then the enemy player, or vice versa. We've wanted to work on an RvR-enabled dungeon for some time. The go-ahead in September shortly after launch was music to our ears. I quickly started drafting up the high-level designs.

Like Darkness Falls, we wanted dungeon access to be determined by RvR; however, Warhammer Online's campaign system is unique. Sorting out the best way to incorporate the dungeon access control mechanism into it required careful design and deliberation, throughout which we wanted to ensure both realms had equal opportunity at the dungeon, that control shifted often (but not too often!), and that neither realm would ever get 'shut out.' After considering everything from Keep control to entirely new control points in open RvR lakes, we came full circle to the crux of the campaign system - Zone Control and open RvR player kills. And so the Expedition Resource system was born!

Inspiration and Planning

Next up was deciding on a theme. Greg Grimsby and I entertained several settings for the dungeon, anything from Skavenblight to Mordheim. Both of us agreed, though, we were looking to explore a wholly new environment. We wanted to create an area unlike anything else in the Warhammer Online world - one that could offer us fresh visual and game-play opportunities. And there it was: the glow of its golden-hued laminated cover pierced through stacks of reference material. It was the Tomb King's army book. The Vulture God taunted us with the mockeries of life in his army. I was enamored by the treasures to be found throughout Nehekara and the Mesopotamian/Egyptian structures in which they laid.

Thoughts of true action-RPG experiences crept in my mind. Visions of the Temple of Doom, Zelda, and God of War flashed through. Questionable levers, treasure that looks too good to be true, collapsing floors, swinging pendulums, spitting darts, (much) larger than life boss fights - I wanted it all. And, oh, what an environment it would make to RvR in.

At first, I felt guilty for such blasphemous thinking in an MMO, but then I decided to indulge. Why not? I asked myself. Surely it can be done. Is it that no other MMO has had the jibblies? Perhaps, but I know that we do. I mean, we give players the ability to kick each other there.

Setting Plans in Motion

The council of raiding experts, artists, and technicians was promptly summoned. Together we debated the hows, whats, whys, whens, pros, and cons. Once everyone was in a comfortable spot, there was a moment of Zen. Everyone around the room had that content grin, the one you get after winning your first 1-versus-1 with an alt. in open RVR. This is it. It's the beginning of the kinds of dungeon experiences the MMO masses have been asking for.

One nagging unresolved concern was the instance portions of the dungeon. There could only be one safe spot in the Land of the Dead, the zone-in point. It was, after all, an RvR dungeon. We couldn't let players hide out inside of instances.

That evening I was hanging outside of a city raid zone in portal while my guild was getting situated. An enemy player came whizzing by, making a break for it into the city instance through our side. Naturally he didn't make it, but what if he had, I thought. That's when the blatantly obvious hit. We're going to let players chase each other into dungeon instances.

The next day the council reconvened and everyone was on-board. Now, I promised the Jeffs to hold off on the details until next month's newsletter so I will, but suffice it to say the concern was resolved and we were ready to move forward to iterate on the system.

Inspired by the theme, each of the designers' and artists' areas of the dungeon began to take shape, first on paper, then to graybox and proxy character models to textured and final models, now to polish. The Land of the Dead comes in two parts: The Necropolis and The Tomb of the Vulture Lord.

The Dream Comes to Fruition

The Necropolis desert is a massive non-instanced zone with several different remote, hidden areas. New types of Public Quests and Lairs can be found throughout, each of which have wholly different game-play mechanic and feel, very much like different stages in an action RPG. And worry not, these Public Quests don't ever boot the solo player out. They are always solo-friendly (that is until the other realm invades), but that's not to say there aren't heroes and lords throughout for warband groups to enjoy. Every monster throughout the Necropolis desert has a chance to drop tokens, with which there is a lot of new phat gear and crafting materials to purchase.


The Tomb of the Vulture Lord is a large instanced dungeon with several boss fights that are a mix of console-style and MMO elitist, if you will. Action-RPG elements are throughout the dungeon with traps, puzzles, and boss fight mechanics. Including a surprise genre first 'encore' encounter, but that's all I'm going to say about that, for now.

We are all super excited about the Land of the Dead, and cannot wait until everyone plays this summer, including us! ;) Be sure to check out the April Newsletter for more info!

Gabe Amatangelo
Senior Designer, Dungeons & Encounters Lead

Warhammer Patch 1.2.1 Coming to Test Servers

Warhammer Online test servers will be upgraded to the warhammer v1.2.1 patch sometime in the coming week. The new patch will included several important changes including updates to the RvR zone control system, Beyond the Sands live event and a lot more. See what's in store for intrepid testers below:

Folks,

The time has come for another update, and next week we will be rolling V1.2.1 on to the Public Test Servers. As always, please come help us test this version; it contains a number of what we hope are key and necessary changes to the game. So, as usual, here are some highlights from the v1.2.1 patch.

1. Combat Responsiveness Improvements - This subject has been an object of much discussion, both internally at Mythic, and externally among the community over the past few months and the team has been focusing especially heavily on this issue over the past few weeks. The result is that we have made a number of important improvements to this aspect of the game. In V1.2.1, casting times have become more accurate under normal play conditions, and players should no longer see a significant "stretch" or "pause" when casting spells while playing in "normal" conditions. We have also changed the UI display so increments of ½ second will be shown to give the player a more accurate and correct representation of time, and in high-lag situations, there will be a slight pause after the bar has filled up instead of the current "stretching" system. We have also made improvements to the animations and special effects-systems, which will result in better transitions especially when players are "chain-casting."

2. Keep Upgrade System - Our new Keep Upgrade system allows guilds that own a Keep to increase the Keep's utility and defensive capabilities in a number of ways which we will talk about in a ton of detail later today. Upgrades need to be paid for, of course, through a maintenance fee, and upgrades will decay over time if maintenance fees aren't paid. We will have a Keep Upgrade Interface to help the guild track the status of its Keep and associated upgrades. And for those guilds that take and hold a Keep until the zone is taken, a special reward awaits.

3. General UI Improvements - We have made a number of improvements to the UI, including a major overhaul of the Guild Window that includes making it larger, adding more tabs and even more useful information. We have also made changes to the User Settings window to make it easier to use.

4. RvR Zone Control Rewards- We have made a number of improvements to reward players receive for capturing an entire zone as opposed to individual Objective and Keep captures. Battlefield Objectives will also buff players in the zone, and the players who have captured a Keep or Battlefield Objective will also see a doubling in the amount of Renown gained when the zone is captured.

5. The Battle for the Gates of Ekrund Expands! - We have added a special 6-on-6 version of the Gates of Ekrund for players between the Ranks of 19-24. This will help players at these Ranks gain experience faster while the team continues to work on other improvements to the experience-gain pace for those Ranks. Of course, this new Scenario "Broken Gates of Ekrund" is also accompanied by its own quest.

6. Beyond the Sands Live Event - It's time for another Live Event, and the rise of the Tomb Kings is getting closer by the minute!

7. Lots of Bug Fixes - While nowhere near the size of the main 1.2 patch, the team still found time to crush a bunch of bugs while working on the rest of 1.2 and the upcoming 1.3.

8. Return to Nordenwatch Weekend Event - We will also be holding a special Nordenwatch-themed weekend event.

9. And More! - Lots more features, career balancing, and improvements to the game are on their way. More details about this next week.

So, those are some of the highlights for Patch 1.2.1. As the patch number suggests, this is not considered a major patch for us, but it does include some important improvements to the game. As I said above, our current plan is for this to be rolled to the PTS early next week. So, please, come help us fill the PTS so we can test these changes in a more "robust" and challenging environment. This will really help us stress test the CRI improvements and as that has been a major issue of concern for players, we ask you again for your help in closing the book (or would that be Tome?) on this issue.

As always, we thank you for your patronage and support. You can add your feedback to these changes in our forums.

Mark

Warhammer NPC Races: Ogres

The Warhammer Online lore book has been updated to provide information about various "non-player characters" (NPC). This week's article focuses on one of history's most notorious figures, the Ogre. Find out all about these malignant beings below:

t was on the last day of our scouting mission that we found the Ogre band. The scene that we stout and hardy rangers witnessed made our worst nightmares seem the mere stuff of a drunken beardling's campfire stories-men of the Empire slaughtered indiscriminately, their mounts torn apart in scattered mounds of gore, and at the center of this grim circle, the Ogres feasted on the armored Knights.

At first we thought they were using the thick armor to better serve up the flesh of the fallen, cracking it open like shells to suck out the meat, but no . . . they were devouring the very steel itself! I saw their leader, his hunger not sated by the feast, set upon one of his wounded fellows. He seemed to consider the monstrous screams of the other Ogre as an added flavor to complete his meal.

It was then, as we witnessed this gruesome scene that we were discovered and added to the Ogre menu. I would never have escaped were it not for the fact that the beasts were slowed by the high alcohol levels in my fellow rangers' blood. Thank Grungi for the Dwarf ale in our battle rations. Beware the relentless gluttony of the Ogre!

- Bandur Stoneshot, Ranger

Ogres

Ogres are huge, fearless beings that are famous for two things: eating and fighting. It is hard to miss an Ogre-their size, girth, and gigantic round bellies, which are almost always protected by a round plate of armor, make them easily recognizable.

Ogres will smash and eat anything, preferably in that order, although for the purpose of digestion it is all the same to them. Of the many things that set Ogres apart from other races, their legendary digestion is probably the most outrageous feature. Ogres are known to eat their prey raw. In fact, some incredible legends tell of Ogres who went so far as to devour the siege weapons of conquered enemies to celebrate their victory.

Ogre Religion: The Great Maw

All Ogres worship the same all-devouring god: The Great Maw. They consider the gigantic crater deity with its jagged tooth-like edges to be a huge, all-consuming mouth, and since Ogres consider anyone who can eat more than themselves superior it's unsurprising that this bottomless pit is held up as an ideal.

The other reason the Ogres worship The Great Maw is because of how it was created. The crash of a colossal comet created the crater now known as The Great Maw, almost completely killing off their kind! The horrendous firestorm that followed this event incinerated everything and everyone for miles around, transforming the lush, grassy highland habitat the Ogres called home into a searing desert. If it hadn't been for cannibalism, the race would have not survived this cataclysm.

To this day the Ogres worship their deity through pilgrimages to maw and the digging of stake-lined pits wherever they travel. Within these muddy, bloody holes in the ground they fight each other and the occasional unlucky traveller to the death, hoping to appease the eternal hunger of their grim god.

Ogre Culture

Ogres strongly believe in the statement "Might makes right!" and this can be seen in all levels of their culture. Their tribal leaders constantly have to prove themselves in combat along with various "Ogre Games" known by illustrious names such as Gut-Barging, Face-Cracking, and Fist-Splintering. The victor of these games gets to eat bits of the loser. If it is a small dispute or a recreational challenge, the lost appendage could be as little as a finger, nose, or ear, but if the challenge is more serious, the combatants will remove their iconic gut-plates before the fight. In this case, it is understood that the winner will beat the loser to death with his bare hands and eat the bloody remains right then and there.


Ogre Allies and Servants

Almost every Ogre bull has a servant Gnoblar. These small greenskins are traded freely among the Ogres, and when a Gnoblar changes ownership, it gets, quite literally, earmarked by its new owner. The Gnoblar's Ogre master bites off a chunk of the Gnoblar's ear so that what remains is a permanent mark of ownership.

Another race that is often seen fighting side-by-side with Ogres is the Yhetees. These sub-tribal beasts hail from the highest peaks of the mountains that the Ogres call their home. It is unsure why they will obey and fight for the Ogres. Some believe that the two races are distantly related, while another theory suggests that the Yhetees owe the Ogres a great debt from their distant past.

Ogres in the Age of Reckoning


Gnoblars can be found all over the Marshes of Madness and, of course, in High Pass. Yhetees are quite a common enemy as well-both Order and Destruction players will be tasked with hunting them on several occasions throughout their careers!

Ogres themselves are spread thinly all across the Old World, but most of them can be found around High Pass and Thunder Mountain. Many Ogre bulls have spread out all over the Old World, most of them to pursue a career as a Mercenary. On your path to greatness, you are bound to run into a couple. Some may ask you for assistance, but most will want to kill you. Ogres love war, and since WAR is everywhere, so are Ogres!

Warhammer: High Elf White Lions

Warhammer Online players will enjoy the new lore article at the official site. High Elf White Lions get a thorough look-see from developers. Find out about these fierce warriors below:

White Lions are fearsome and skilled High Elf warriors who originate from the wild land of Chrace. The pelt they adorn is taken from a white lion that they defeated on their own, thus proving their strength and skill in combat. In Warhammer, White Lions usually serve as bodyguards for the Phoenix King, but some of them choose a different path by trying to tame lion cubs, eventually fostering them into mighty War Lions.

Such a dangerous task does not go without a worthy reward - a War Lion can grow up to be the size of an adult horse, making them ferocious allies on the battlefield. As such, players who choose to play a White Lion in Warhammer Online may call upon one of these beasts to help them in combat; and instill fear in the hearts of their enemies as they wield their Great Axe like no other in the Old World.