A lot happened for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning in 2008. From the introduction of Public Quests to the removal of classes and racial cities, WAR was the talk around town even before it's September launch. there was even more after September when WAR arrived. Log in issues, the best RvR in a game, and server transfers are only a few of the highlights we saw post launch. Well, now it's 2009 and the game is in full swing, so what can we look forward to this year from WAR? That's a good question and we think we have a few things that are likely to happen, so if you want to see into the future then check out WAR: What To Expect In 2009!
A lot happened for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning in 2008. From the introduction of Public Quests to the removal of classes and racial cities, WAR was the talk around town even before it's September launch. there was even more after September when WAR arrived. Log in issues, the best RvR in a game, and server transfers are only a few of the highlights we saw post launch. Well, now it's 2009 and the game is in full swing, so what can we look forward to this year from WAR? That's a good question and we think we have a few things that are likely to happen, so if you want to see into the future then check out WAR: What To Expect In 2009!
Mythic have announced that only 1 of either the Hammerer or Choppa will be coming back. As people seem to love the Choppa and are a bit luke warm to the Hammerer, I'd bet on a dual wielding Greenskin. This obviously leaves room for a MDPS dwarf class... Slayers anyone? That would be the peoples' choice and help balance the faction numbers. EvenI'd roll an order alt for the chance to have a go at a dual axe weilding maelstrom o' death. WE my *rse! ;D
The idea of an expansion seems to be a little premature though. But none of my toons are 40 yet, so I don't have that "same old" feeling yet. A fairly simple and linear way to introduce an expansion would be a new city pairing. Maybe even having to unlock the City by sieging the existing inhabitants, or reclaiming an old one. Greenskins vs. Dwarves would be a classic example. "...Break down da gates boyz! We'z got stunties ta kill!!" I quite like the idea of a Black Arc for the Delf city too. They're plenty big enough!
Neutral factions? Meh. Still can't see it happening anytime soon. Outside of Skaven looking awesome, there's just no other pink skin races to fill the opposing void. And if you're gonna add anything, Khorne please! Khorne Marauders and Tanks?! PURE OWNAGE. I still think a Chaos Undivided stance on Chaos would have been a more flavoursome option to just Tzeentch, even though they did a pretty good job on the realisation.
I think in the short-mid term, get the 2 classes back, add some richer RvR experiences/quests/mobs and get a city or 2 in for the mix. Fix some bug issues and that should see us well into 2010.
I agree with Erb, the Slayer would be a big boost to the Order side and they need it to help balance the numbers. I expect to see the two missing melee classes as the next major thing done for the game.
After that they still have to finish the G vs O and HE vs DE realms. I wouldn't expect a big expansion outside the anything in conjunction with the addition of the final two cities pairs. That includes new races/classes.
I haven't played all the classes yet (I have palyed more than half of them however) but as far as I see all the classes have their pair, mechanics wise. If you add a new class that would mean adding new mechanics. This will probably take some time to balance.
They could easily increase the level caps while putting the nessesary new content in the missing cities. I also seem to remember during developement the desire to have truely complete cities where you can access/pillage nearly every door, room, and corner. This leaves room for expansion there too.
As for a neutral faction, though the WAR IP does allow for that I would hope that you wouldn't have that in this game. It would create more unbalance. Two sides will always gang up on the other. If they could switch; how often can you switch sides? I like the head to head action. Pick your side and surge on.
I could however see a neutral race in the Warhammer World pulling double duty. This would be ideal for the Ogres as you have Chaos Ogres and normal Ogres in the IP. They could even be the same class, but of course having different armor/look. This would be an easy way of adding classes while maintaining balance. The only problem I see with this is that the Ogre is a "monster class", those familiar with table top game will know what I mean. Do you really want a class bigger and meaner than the Black Ork. Though popular, these characters are usually are treated different in the IP. Ogres would open the door for the other monster classes: Trolls, Ogre-Dragons, Rat Ogres, Treemen, Daemons.
In the future, skaven seem an obviouse choice to add as a new race (i'm a big fan). However, Where do you put their city. Everyone knows that their capital city is located under Aldorf.Wouldn't they have to contend with the humans. As I think about the other classes in the IP I see more "evil" classes than good; scaven, lizardmen, beastmen, undead, vampires. Without mounted combat can you really have Britonia? I would love to see the Wood Elves with their Bladedancers emerge. I'm sure they have a plan for the other races. Part of the fun is seeing what they come up with.
I hope Mythic realizes that WAR needs the Choppa andSlayer. You could see the online activity and numbers spike upwards when they held the Heavy Metal LE and afterward. The chance to finally play a Blackguard brought a few people back to WAR. Adding the Choppa, and especially the Slayer, would have the same affect.
By giving Ironbreakers access to Hammers, the Hammerers main Dwarfish "shtick" is gone. Therefore it would make more sense for the Dwarfs to get the Slayer. Especially given how popular and or well-known the Slayer is in the Warhammer world. Yet I am reminded of DAoC where, if I recall correctly, they are still missing one career for one faction. So just getting the Choppa and losing the Dwarf Melee DPS forever is a possibility, though a very unpleasant one.
Just as WAR, in my sort of humble opinion, needs the Choppa and Slayer it also needs the HEvDE and DvG cities. The DvG cities, from what I remember, were in game back in 2007. But were pulled when the DvG got its overhaul. With just the EvC cities the RvR endgame is pretty restricted. As an RvR, plus PvP, fan I am just not looking forward to pillaging Altdorf over and over again. I want to mix other cities into my vacation plans.
I do expect that we will not see any new "playable" races added in 2009. There is too much "on the plate" for the races that are playable now, like overused models and itemization in general, for me to expect Mythic to try introducing new ones yet. I think we might get new playable races but I wouldn't expect them until 2010, with the xpac, at the earliest.
Mythic, again in my mostly humble opinion, still has a lot of work to do on WAR. It needs a great deal of cleaning up, polishing, and enrichment. Figuring out which mechanics to keep and or change. Adding more dungeons to satisfy their growing, but still small, raider community. Plus the greatly feared "balancing" patch that is looming over all of our precious overpowered abilities.
I expect a lot to happen in 2009 but I think it will mostly be getting WAR to the level of polish, plus content completeness, that it should have been at retail and that people keep using as arguments against it when inevitably compared to WoW.
I hope Mythic realizes that WAR needs the Choppa andSlayer. You could see the online activity and numbers spike upwards when they held the Heavy Metal LE and afterward. The chance to finally play a Blackguard brought a few people back to WAR. Adding the Choppa, and especially the Slayer, would have the same affect.
By giving Ironbreakers access to Hammers, the Hammerers main Dwarfish "shtick" is gone. Therefore it would make more sense for the Dwarfs to get the Slayer. Especially given how popular and or well-known the Slayer is in the Warhammer world. Yet I am reminded of DAoC where, if I recall correctly, they are still missing one career for one faction. So just getting the Choppa and losing the Dwarf Melee DPS forever is a possibility, though a very unpleasant one.
Just as WAR, in my sort of humble opinion, needs the Choppa and Slayer it also needs the HEvDE and DvG cities. The DvG cities, from what I remember, were in game back in 2007. But were pulled when the DvG got its overhaul. With just the EvC cities the RvR endgame is pretty restricted. As an RvR, plus PvP, fan I am just not looking forward to pillaging Altdorf over and over again. I want to mix other cities into my vacation plans.
I do expect that we will not see any new "playable" races added in 2009. There is too much "on the plate" for the races that are playable now, like overused models and itemization in general, for me to expect Mythic to try introducing new ones yet. I think we might get new playable races but I wouldn't expect them until 2010, with the xpac, at the earliest.
Mythic, again in my mostly humble opinion, still has a lot of work to do on WAR. It needs a great deal of cleaning up, polishing, and enrichment. Figuring out which mechanics to keep and or change. Adding more dungeons to satisfy their growing, but still small, raider community. Plus the greatly feared "balancing" patch that is looming over all of our precious overpowered abilities.
I expect a lot to happen in 2009 but I think it will mostly be getting WAR to the level of polish, plus content completeness, that it should have been at retail and that people keep using as arguments against it when inevitably compared to WoW.
This is the WIN, do this and War will be fun for another year, and Top it whit a OCT or Nov ancmente of Expansion pack that is coming 6 months down the road.
Simple as that, add lost classes gets back some, add lost city gets back more + give new drive, polish addes even more, and expansion anoncment holds you player....
I think that an announcement is scheduled for the end of January to give an outline of the plans Mythic have for WAR for 2009 (Mark Jacobs posted something to that effect on the VN boards).
The Hammerer I think will go the way of the Dodo especially in light of Ironbreakers getting hammers as useable weapons, Choppas were very popular, at least in concept.
The game does need the 4 missing cities added, though I expect them to be released a month or more after the 2 missing classes, & if an expansion is announced it will be either released very late in 2009 or sometime in 2010.
I disagree there will be a level raise in the first expansion though, DAoC had some expansions without level raises so Mythic has prior form on this & there is certainly a lot of scope to expand what already exists by enough to warrant an expansion, also a level raise would effectively render all of of the present T4 campaign obsolete &/or create too big a gap between those entering t4 & the new max level, if new zones are added I would think it would be as a new racial "pairing" & thus a new fortress & city at the end of it, though if they are adding another race to each of the two factions there would be a big call for expanding the available character slots to 16 to accomodate them (& may as well go to 12 in the meantime to accomodate the new tanks & melees released over the original 10 classes).
New races are certainly feasible, though there appear to be more viable Destruction variants than Order but Skaven/Lizardmen/Undead (Tomb Kings/Vampire Lords)/Chaos Dwarves/Ogres (not really a regular destruction race as highly mercenary) up against Wood Elves/Dogs of War? (Mercenary army)/Kislev/Bretonians (would need to re-imagine these or only use non-cavalry troops unless they add mounted combat in some form).
If we take the story line into consideration, the Dark Elves saw an opportunity when the Tzeentch hordes started making inroads to Altdorf. They buffed the Greenskins to make more of a distraction before they headed off for their ultimate goal, "reclaiming" the High Elf lands.
Perhaps, this is a pattern for an expansion chain to follow. Add new T5 content for the Greenskin vs. Dwarf zones and city. Sack Altdorf/Inevitable City and you're one step closer to the victory. Head towards Greenskin / Dwarf city and do the same. Once this is done, the ultimate conspirators depending on faction are open for a kick-in. This would set the stage for a "final" confrontation at T6 content in both Elf cities.
My only fear, is that with a linear progression like that, what happens after T6? You've won. You're RR 120 (or whatever it gets capped at) and have all the gear you can carry.
It looks as though Mythic may be hoping RvR fun is enough to keep us all playing. Essentially a FPS MMO like Half-Life. You play to nuke and go. But this genre of game needs more than just "the game" to hold long term interest, and therefore profitability for Mythic. WoW get's round this by creating new PvE raid dungeons and everso slightly better gear along with a level raise. This fools the populace into thinking there is something new and wonderful to a game they have gotten tired of. Rinse and repeat.
There needs to be some form of perpetual fight that neither side can ever fully "win" that also offers in-game development for your characters. But there's the trick. That aint at all easy. Answers on a postcard to...
I think Keep-design & seiges in general need a comprehensive update, they are far too bland & each keep should ideally present a unique challenge, though with the number of keeps in game that's an unrealistic expectation.
Adding a tradeskill for siege equiptment, boosting them to not be less effective than an afk player & perhaps having more powerful variants of these engines which can use 2or more player crews to improve their power.
Keeps redesigned, at least a far bigger variation on the present designs which all boil down to kick in two doors, push past the stair/ramp bottle-neck, Keep/Fortress sieges have massive potential & are currently far too dumbed-down & bland (DAoC has way better implimentation).
The rumblings on the grapevine are more Fortress & ORvR client & server updates, the Slayer replaces the Hammerer & they may be on the PTS when the 1.11 is pushed to it for testing, some career tweaking, some new additions to RvR & PvE, a new method of locking zones (in the works right now - Source Paul Barnett's MySpace page) the "domination system" - no leather involved though, & the plan for what Mythic are going to be working on for the next 5 months outlined in loose detail including when they expect to roll out the missing cities, plus....even more stuff.
WAR: What To Expect In 2009
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