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]

What Warhammer patch 1.05 means for you

We just put up notice of the Warhammer Online 1.0.5 patch hitting the live servers, and the advent of official test servers. But what what does the patch 1.05 mean? How is it going to affect your character class? Spinks over at Book of Grudges has done a fantastic job of breaking down the notes and clearing the decks for each archetype. According to the blogger, it sounds as though Healers, Ironbreakers, and classes relying on roots were the big losers. Heal over time spells recieved a big nerf, and the Ironbreaker 'grudge' mechanic has gotten a big slapping down as well.

Meanwhile warhammer pet classes have come out as the big winners, and all users of the damage over time-style spells will see an increase in their damage. Be sure to let us know in the comments what you think of the new changes as you begin to see their impact on gameplay!

Warhammer Character Transfers and Hot Fixes

Now i will take you a host of hot fixes and the news that warhammer character transfers have begun on Warhammer Online servers. The transfers are free for those on the NA Core Ruleset servers at this time, however.

HOTFIXES

Content

* Fixed an issue that would in some rare cases cause Skiv Redwarp, a boss NPC in the Warpblade Tunnels dungeon to become unattackable.
* The NPC Zarbog One-toe in the Badlands will no longer fall under the world.
* Adjusted the levels of some Withered Crone and Restless Spirit NPCs to a more appropriate range for their locations in the world.
* Made some adjustments to the Sigmar's Crypts dungeon bosses Zakarai and Verrimus to bring them in line with the intended level of difficulty.
* Fixed an issue that was preventing players from re-entering the Inevitable City dungeon Bilerot Burrow after being defeated by the boss NPC Bartholomew the Sickly.
* Fixed an issue that was causing some of the Withered Crones associated with the Witching Night live event to run around in circles.

Items

* Disciples of Khaine will now be able to purchase the appropriate armor pieces from Tier 3 renown merchants.
* Corrected an issue in which the Elite-level Magus rewards offered in Chaos Chapter 16 included two erroneous items.

Quests & Public Quests

* Out of Favor: Conquering the Raven: Fixed an incorrect waypoint in this quest.
* Control: Fixed an issue that was causing Falathin Soulbreaker to become unattackable, which was preventing players from completing this quest.
* Gud Memory: Fixed an incorrect waypoint in this quest.
* The Wind of Change: The NPC Tomas Schurmann will now spawn properly for this quest.
* The Witching Hour: Zealots will now receive the proper rewards from all loot bags offered by this Public Quest.
* The Witching Hour: Instances of this Public Quest will no longer reset instantly following a successful completion.

And as for the Warhammer Character Transfer Service:

Greetings!

We are pleased to announce that in the coming days we will be offering Free Character Transfers from our servers with lower populations to a set of servers with higher populations. To help you better prepare for these transfers we have provided additional details below.
Update - 1:45PM EDT: The Realm Population Bonus only applies to North American Core Ruleset servers at this time. This has been edited in the notes below. Thank you!

Players on select servers will be able to transfer their characters via the Mythic Account Center. When the service is enabled in the coming days, players will see a Character Transfer button below "Activate a Key" and "Validate your Email Address."

Full details on Character Transfers can be found within this section, and we encourage you to read all of the information very carefully before you make a decision about your transfer, because it is very important. Once you have read the instructions and prepared your character in-game, simply follow the steps to select the character you wish to transfer and your desired destination server.

We are also pleased to announce the Guild Transfer functionality. Instructions on the functionality of this feature and its limitations can also be found on the Character Transfer page. It is strongly recommended you read these instructions closely before proceeding, because they contain very important information. We encourage guild leaders to take their time when preparing to transfer their guild as it cannot be reversed.

The following is a list of Source and Destination servers. Players can move to any available Destination servers based on ruleset. Use this list as a guide to help you and your friends if you intend to move to one of the available Destination servers, but please note that this information is subject to change. We will provide a final list before the transfer service is launched. Be aware that these transfers are one-way and cannot be aborted once started.

Be sure to head to the official site for Warhammer to determine which warhammer servers are available for the transfer services.

Warhammer Server Transfers Coming Soon

Warhammer Online developers have announced that the public testing of the warhammer server transfer technology will begin as soon as next week. Guilds and players will be able to try out the service for free. Check out the official announcement:

Folks,

Over the last few weeks the team has implementing a transfer system to allow both players and guilds to move between our servers. This technology was not available for WAR at launch and building it has proven to be a little more complex than originally expected. I'm happy to say that starting next week we will begin public testing of the service and if things go well, we will be able to offer it free to our players (for a limited time) either next week or the week after that. I apologize for the delay in making this service available but again, it did take a little longer than we originally expected.

We will be posting details next week about the public test and then the parameters for the free service.

Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan notes Warhammer server imbalances

If you assumed that Jeff Kaplan, the game director of World of Warcraft, would have been an active participant in the Warhammer Online Beta ... well, you'd be wrong. Despite Kaplan's position, connections throughout the industry, and enthusiasm for the genre he and a number of other Blizzard employees were excluded from the Warhammer Online closed beta. MTV's Tracey John continues her string of insider-info articles on the employees and practices of Blizzard Entertainment, noting Kaplan's good relationship with Paul Barnett. In a response to the initial posting of the article, Mythic head Mark Jacobs wrote in saying that "it was Mythic's company policy to not allow competing games' developers into "Warhammer"'s closed betas. Jacobs also said he would've been happy to have any Blizzard staffers join the open beta but was unaware of a specific request to do so."

John also asks the WoW honcho about his opinion of Warhammer as it is post-launch. Kaplan, like many players, is working with a Destruction character and is finding the game's population imbalance a bit frustrating. "I'm at the point where I'm thinking about quitting because it feels like the best way to level up is in the battlegrounds ... it takes me 30 to 45 minutes to get in the battleground queue," he said. Check out the brief interview for more on Kaplan's view of Warhammer, and head over to Broken Toys for some background on this exchange via Scott Jennings.

More Warhammer Online

Warhammer realm population bonuses

Mythic Entertainment announced their latest list of Warhammer Online servers to receive realm population bonuses this week. Not surprisingly, five of the seven (Core) servers listed impart bonuses for playing Order.

Mythic stated: "Great rewards await those who take up their charge and help bolster their army's strengths where it's needed the most... these bonuses are temporary boosts to help new players get into the game and strengthen their allies' efforts on servers where their realm struggles to keep up with the growing armies of their enemy. For one week, these chosen servers will bestow divine gifts upon the designated realm to help swell their ranks and give them the power to try and turn the tides of battle. Players who join the vanguard will receive a 20% bonus to renown and experience." The list of Warhammer servers that give these bonuses is found in-game at the Server Select screen; the currently listed bonuses will expire on October 24th.