Thursday, December 16, 2010

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! PTS City Test 5/16

Greetings!

Due to some technical difficulties we were unable to fully test The Inevitable City during last night's Public City test, so we're bringing the whole gang back for one more night of no holds barred PTS City Testing! This SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY at 8:00 PM EDT we'll be hoisting the banner of WAR and invading the streets of The Inevitable City on the Warpstone Public Test Server. As has been the case with the last 2 tests, only character copies will be enabled, no templates, so be sure to copy your characters over early! For information on how to access the Warpstone PTS and how to copy your characters over, please read here.

But wait, there's more!

Everyone who comes to Sunday night's test will be entered in a random drawing to win 1 of 6 copies of the Collector's Edition versions of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning autographed by the development team!

So come one, come all, and we'll see you on Warpstone!


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Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Mass PTS Playtest - Thanquol's Incursion!

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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Baltimore Games Day: Warhammer Online – Land of the Dead at Ten Ton Hammer

Discover the new Land of the Dead expansion for Warhammer Online.

Warhammer is a very diverse world for players. Building armies with different themes has always been the real draw of the game. Warhammer Online took one of those armies and turned it into a free expansion for the game that will have players running, fighting, and playing in the end game for a long time to come. The Tomb Kings expansion for Land of the Dead brings the Egyptian themes from Warhammer to life in the online world. Players will be battling mummies, skeletons, scarabs, sands, and huge statues of enemies, but the fun part is they will be battling each other as well.


Welcome to the Land of the Dead.


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Monday, December 13, 2010

New Account Entitlements come to WAR!

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning proudly introduces an all new service for our players; Account Entitlements!  These services are available now for purchase from the EA store and include the following features offered at special introductory prices:Server Transfer - $19.99 USD, this will grant you a code that can be redeemed for one server transfer for a single character. Starter Mount Pack – $8.99 USD, all characters on an account will receive a deed to obtain a mount usable at level 2 giving players a 25% speed boost and have a 100% chance to dismount upon damage.Trusty Mount Pack – $9.99 USD, all characters on an account will receive a deed to obtain your choice of a new mount usable at level 20 giving players mounts of up to 60% speed boost and have a 55% chance to dismount upon damageTrinkets of the World Pack – $4.99 USD, all characters on an account will receive two tokens to spend at the new Trophy Vendor in the capital cities. Each token can be used to purchase one of 14 different trophies.Specialized Training Pack – $9.99 USD, all characters on an account will recieve one War Tract that will allow them to immediately advance one full level when usedHerald Pet Pack – $9.99 USD, all characters on an account will be granted adoption papers to the Snotling Herald vanity pet. This pet will follow you around and give you a boost!Account entitlements are now available, so be sure to visit the EA Store today to check them out! (Codes may only be redeemed once per account, excluding character server transfers)(Prices may vary by region, please refer to the EA Store for pricing)

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Warhammer Online Producer's Letter: September [Warhammer Online]

In her latest Producer's Letter to Warhammer Online fans, Producer Carrie Gouskos sounds quite excited for what this year has in store for Warhammer Online. More specifically, for those of you who don't know, Warhammer Online actually turned two years old about two weeks back on September 18, with players receiving an endless firework, the WAR double aegis, and a special two year anniversary cloak. Carrie goes on to explain that, for this year, the team is really planning to focus on improving the RvR in Warhammer Online. Given that Warhammer is virtually defined by its RvR experience, this certainly sounds like a good plan!

If you were one of those players (like myself) who player Warhammer Online during its launch week, Mike B. aka Fony also did his latest BFF Report on Warhammer Online, and while getting stuck on that terrain does seem pretty bad, Mike seems to have had fun diving back into this two-year-old game. So check out that BFF Report and remember that Warhammer Online does have an "endless trial" system for players up to level 10!

Also, you can read Gouskos' letter after the jump.

Greetings all,

September is an extra special month here in the studio. As of September 18th, WAR is officially two years old! All players celebrating two years of a Warhammer subscription will be rewarded for their service with extra special gifts; an endless firework, the WAR Double Aegis (it means we like you!), and a special two year anniversary cloak. Any player who reaches one or two years cumulatively (it does not need to be consecutive months), will receive their celebratory gifts via in-game mail.

From month to month and version to version, we've been concentrating our focus on gameplay that will maximize your in game experience, including most recently, the addition of Against All Odds, and the revitalization of RVR in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 lakes. These have worked to great effect, and so we intend to take them to the next level in the RVR Pack, by continuing our focus on Open RVR, as well as creating a new playspace in the Skaven area, and providing new things to do through new features such as play as Skaven, new armor sets and the raising of the Renown cap to 100.

We have recently released more information about these features at Games Day UK. At Games Day, we were able to dive more in depth about the ORVR changes, the playable Skaven classes, the renown changes, and an extra goodie, the Barber Surgeon, who hacks off your face and gives you a new one… for a price. In this letter, I’d like to reveal some details about these features as well as talk about the general direction Warhammer is headed in. I’ll also be talking about a timeline for the rest of the announcements around the ORVR pack, though I’m not going to be sharing the date and prices, as those haven’t been finalized yet.

While the changes we’re making to ORVR represent a holistic attitude shift in our current gameplay offering within a single zone, the campaign itself won’t be changing. Players will need to unlock the zones in order and choose which zone to fight in. All zones, once contested, will begin with each Realm owning one Keep, and the purpose is to take control of the other. The purpose is for players to fight over the Battlefield Objectives, generating Resource Carriers that will travel from the battlefield objective to their Warcamp. Once the resources reach the Warcamp, or if the other side intercepts the resource, those resources will be added to their Realm total. No longer will the win condition be based on waiting out timers after a quick capture of all the zone objectives, instead it will be based on a push-and-pull of resources, and even if one Realm is outnumbered, the longer they hold out the battle, the more points they earn for their side.

Resources gained will level your Keep, and at each level you will unlock mechanics that will help you in your effort to take down the enemy’s Keep. At Rank one, your Resource Carriers will become armored, and at Rank two they will become mounted. By Keep Rank three, you will be granted offensive siege, which will be limited now but extremely powerful. The new vision of siege is that it can really help turn the tide of battle, and as such we want to allow more freedom in placement, so they will be able to be placed anywhere around the keep. Rank four grants you the ram, more siege, and aerial bombers. The ram will be required to take down the outer door, which must happen before taking down the inner door, and then eventually capturing the Keep flag (goodbye Keep Lords!) The aerial bombers is one example of a strategy we’re opening up to melee classes, who no longer will be forced (or able) to “grind” the keep door. Now they all can take the battle inside the keep before the door is down, to help employ new tactics in the attack and defense. Finally, Rank five will offer more aerial bombers and siege, and will hopefully cinch the battle for one side or the other.

These are pretty significant changes to the game, however we’re confident that they will create many new exciting experiences in Open RVR, including, among other things, spreading out the more populated Realm, giving the less populated side new tactics to employ.

At some point during the campaign, players will also be able to take control of Skaven classes. We are bringing four beloved Skaven archetypes to the game, and players will be able to choose to control a Skaven troop instead of play their normal character (but only if they’ve earned them!) These classes include the defensive constructible building Warlock Engineer, the stealthy sabotaging Gutter Runner, the tank, rat-hurling Rat Ogre, and the supportive rat-harnassing Packmaster.  Skaven are some of the coolest creatures in Warhammer lore, and we think you’ll have a real dilemma on your hands as you decide to fight alongside your trusty character(s) or harnass the sneaky power of the rat rat thing thing.

And that’s just the first glance of what’s going into the RVR Pack. As fall has arrived and the end of the year is looming, we’re going to be releasing a lot more information in the next few weeks, culminating in opening the public test server in October, where you’ll be able to check these features out for yourselves. Please help us by testing these features and providing your feedback, as you did with the cities, to great success.

In recent weeks, we’ve been enforcing new restrictions on trial players. While it is important to us that trial players have a good experience, it is imperative that their enjoyment does not infringe on the experience of our paid subscribers. If the trial access can be abused in any way, we will take a hard look at what they are allowed to do. As such, we have made some changes to trial access to servers, chat, and other in-game features. These will only be done in service of our paying subscribers, and we are sorry that a minority of players abusing the system spoil it for everyone.
Additionally, I want to let you know that we continue to work to maximize performance for all of our players. We do not want to limit player populations in the Open RVR areas by force, so we continue to work on the backend to ensure that as many people as possible can fit in an area and have a good time while there.

Speak to you very soon,

-Carrie


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Sunday, December 12, 2010

Submit Your Loading Screen Tips Today!



Find out why Carrie has an evil grin...

We'd like to proudly announce that we're opening up an opportunity for players to leave a lasting impression on the loading screens of Warhammer, as well as the battlefield!

Loading Screen Tips are an important part of any game's educational and entertainment value, and Warhammer is no different. With our loading tips, we've tried to tell a story for players about important tips on how the game works, as well as include some silly anecdotes about game development or Dwarfs.


We want you to have the opportunity as well, so in the forum thread here, we are going to be accepting your submissions to make a part of Warhammer Online history by immortalizing yourself in the loading screen tips. Here are the steps: Submit your tips, as many as you like, in a post below.Please post from the character and server which you would like this tip attributed to (remember it is in-game character names only)All entries must be in before June 30th, 2010.

The loading screen tips will be submitted to a judging panel of Mythic employees who will select tips that most effectively judge the tip based on whether or not it is informative, lore-based, or humorous. Tips will be chosen based on how useful/appropriate/humorous they are, as well as if they’re information that can not be found more easily elsewhere. We may correct grammar/spelling, and all tips/names must pass Games Workshop approval.

Chosen entries will be announced and awarded an exclusive in-game title: The Tipster

We will be accepting submissions from now until June 30th, 2010. 

Thanks and we look forward to reading all of your posts!


DISCLAIMER

By posting your idea / material to EA, you represent and warrant that your submission (a) is your own and original creation and does not violate or infringe the rights of any third party, including without limitation, copyrights, trademarks or trade dress, patents, or rights of publicity/privacy; (b) is not defamatory, obscene, offensive or indecent; and (c) and has not been previously published or submitted to other parties or websites.
Once you submit any idea or material to EA, you expressly grant EA the worldwide, complete, exclusive, perpetual and irrevocable right to quote, re-post, use, reproduce, modify, distribute, transmit, broadcast, and otherwise communicate, and publicly display and perform the idea or material in any form, anywhere, without attribution to you, and without notice or compensation to you of any kind and without creating an express or implied contract of any kind If we decide to use, develop or publish your material, you agree to take any further steps reasonably required by EA to enforce and protect our rights to your material. You acknowledge full responsibility for ideas/material provided and agree to defend, indemnify and hold EA harmless for any liability arising out of  your submission and/or EA’s use of your idea/material.


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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Grab Bag No. 23 - Daemon Moon Rising

Welcome to the Daemon Moon Rising special issue of the Grab Bag, where we're answering all your questions about the Daemon Moon Rising Live Event! This Live Event begins today, so before you dive in, prepare by reading up on some of the details that your fellow players had questions about!
Q. How is this year’s Daemon Moon Rising Live Event different from last year’s The Witching Night Live Event?

A. Everything! In fact, the only thing the same from last year are the masks. This year there’s a new, unique RvR Public Quest, a event Scenario, a special daemon encounter, and unique quests, to name just a few.

Q. Is there a special reward for completing all ten Daemon Moon Rising tasks?

A. Yes, there is a special title for completing all 10 tasks, but you can earn the Elite reward after completing only eight tasks.

Q. Are the masks from the new Live Event all Event Slot items with stats, or are some of them cosmetic and only a few of them stat-based?

A. The masks can be equipped in your helmet slot (not the event slot). Each mask has a unique ability that you can use against your enemies.


Q. Can anyone, no matter what Rank they are, participate in the Daemon Moon Rising Live Event?

A. Absolutely! There are tasks for every Rank, including those in the open RvR areas.

Q. Is the Magnus Daemonarium mask going to be the same graphic as last year’s Mask of the Bloodletter?

A. The Magnus Daemonarium is actually not a mask. It's the event slot item reward that you can earn for completing eight event tasks.

Q. What do the Magnus Daemonarium and Malleus Daemonarium do?

A. The Magnus Daemonarium and Malleus Daemonarium provide career-specific statistics into the event slot on the character sheet, and decays in real-time.

Q. Where does the Daemonball Rally Public Quest take place?

A. The Daemonball Rally Public Quest takes place in each of the Empire and Chaos RvR areas.

Q. What is the length of the Daemonball PQ? How often will the PQ reset after it is finished?

A. The length of time that the Daemonball PQ lasts depends on the players. Similar to football, the Public Quest requires you to deliver a demon skull to your Realm's goal.  Scoring five points wins the Public Quest for your Realm. Watch your goal, however as the enemy can destroy delivered skulls to remove points you’ve earned!

Q. How many gold bags will be awarded/how easy will it be to win a gold bag and get that awesome Leather Face Mask?

A. You will be able to obtain the Leather Face Mask by completing the Daemonball Rally open RvR Public Quest. Three gold bags are awarded to the victors of the Daemonball Rally Public Quest, and the Leather Face Mask has a 100% chance to be in the gold bags.

As stated earlier, this takes place in each of the Empire vs. Chaos RvR areas, so anyone can participate!

Q. How do I obtain the Face-Eater’s Mask?

A. Obtaining the Face-Eater’s Mask is achieved by defeating Goreslake the Bloodthirster. It is a strictly PvE encounter located somewhere within the Chaos Wastes. There are two versions of this PQ, one for Order and another for Destruction. For each successful win, three gold bags that contain either the Face-Eater's Mask or the Magnus Daemonarium will drop.

Q. Will the masks from last year's event become tradeable? Some of them, such as the Silver and Bloodletter mask, were not. (One was an influence reward, the other was PQ loot.)

A. As a general rule of thumb, if a mask was not tradeable last year, it won’t be tradeable this year.


Q. Will the masks, even the ones from last year, feature stats or something to make them useful to wear instead of armor (particularly armor sets)?

A. Each mask is imbued with a unique ability that can be used in battle.  The ability will only be useable during the Daemon Moon Rising Live Event.

Q. Will there ever be a Skaven-themed mask?

A.  Never say never, but not this year.



Did you know that existing unguilded characters under Rank 20 can join the two New Player Guilds? You can! Simply visit the recruiter NPC for The Forces of Order or The Forces of Destruction in your Realm’s capital city (near the Flight Master) or at the Tier 1 Empire vs. Chaos warcamps.
Herald Review

Producer's Letter - 1.3.2 and Beyond
http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=948

Game Update 1.3.2 is Now Live!
http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=945

Community News

New Player Guilds and Advice Channel FAQ
http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=956

Dev Diary: Chad Robertson (Game Performance)
http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=949

Armor Set Redesign: Part 3
http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=927

Got a Question?

If you have a question that you'd like to see in the Grab Bag, send it via the Feedback Form. Be sure to select the Grab Bag category from the drop-down menu.

Credits

Special thanks to Mark Davis, Mike Wyatt, Ahmad Zabarah, and the Live Events Team for their help with this issue of the Grab Bag!


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Friday, December 3, 2010

In Development - Thanquol's Incursion

The tunnels have been dug – the cobbled machinery hooked into place – and for a moment, the whips stop cracking. All those present turn as bestial laughter echoes throughout the dank cavern. The sickly-green glow of Warpstone illuminates the face of the great Grey Seer, Thanquol, as he steps forward, arms raised.Rather than give a stage-by-stage walk through of the Dungeon, I’m just going to talk about what you are probably most interested to hear about: Boss Fights.  As a general rule, the bosses will stand their ground, and not chase players all over the place – there are some special cases which could arise, but you’ll find them standing still most of the time. Remember, they are here to aggravate your RvR fighting, not become a full on PvE situation. The first boss you encounter will be the Warlock Engineer Skeetk. He is a master of Warp-Energy, and will definitely use that to his advantage. Don’t let Skeetk’s lack of adds fool you; he has some pretty nasty tricks up his sleeve - Some of which will cause you to die a painful, crispy, death if you’re not paying attention to your surroundings. If allowed to build up enough of a charge, Skeetk will let loose with a devastating attack that will decimate the area. It’s probably best you don’t allow that to happen ... or, at least be sure he’s focused on your enemy at the time. The second boss you encounter will be Throt the Unclean. Throt will not come alone, however. He has the ability to summon Rat Ogres, and uses that ability to ensure there are always two such beasts around to aid him. These Rat Ogres are not your run of the mill beasts, either. They are extremely focused, and once they have chosen a target, they will not waver until that target has been killed... well, most of the time, anyway. Throt, himself, has few abilities he employs, letting his dominated pets do most of his dirty work for him. He does get hungry, however -very, very hungry. You’ll want to make sure someone is keeping track of Throt’s hunger; the havoc he can wreak when hungry is nothing compared to when he becomes ravenous! To aid in his protection, a moat of warpfluid rises around Throt’s location. Wading through this muck is most assuredly hazardous to your health – yours, and quite possibly, everyone else’s around you as well.
The third boss you encounter will be Thanquol. He is, of course, accompanied by his construct, Boneripper. Thanquol also activates Mantraps hidden throughout the area, so be careful... your next step could very well be your last. While Boneripper charges through the area, looking for unwary players leaning over ledges, Thanquol tarnishes the area with corruption and plaque. Thanquol believes his ability to reconstruct Boneripper, should you manage to take him down, coupled with his near impenetrable barriers of sickness, put him at a marked advantage. Perhaps it’s time for someone to use Thanquol’s own corruption against him for a change.
With the fall of Thanquol, the Incursion ends. The surface is free to begin gathering resources once more. Now... if only there was something you could do with all that Warpstone you’ve plundered...

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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

WAR Quartermasters: The Future of RvR at Ten Ton Hammer

Rewarding even the little guy for his efforts

What could possibly be more exciting than a bloodthirsty charge into a mass of enemy soldiers? Being properly compensated for your efforts of course! Mythic is proposing a unique advancement system in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning to present players with tokens for purchasing potions and RvR gear traditionally only availabe in keep raids. We've got all the details fully summarized just inside.


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