Warhammer Online

[DeathDealer]

Is anybody else considering to play Warhammer Online?
It is not anywhere near being released yet, but it sounds best to me.

[Grok]

Is anybody else considering to play Warhammer Online?
It is not anywhere near being released yet, but it sounds best to me.
link?

[Horth]

www.warhammeronline.com :P

It looks kind of neat, but I still need to read through most of it. The game would've been much more kickass if it was WarHammer 40k (http://ca.games-workshop.com/40kuniverse/40kuniverse.htm) and a fps like Planetside :D

So.. a totally different game, in actuality. I hope they still make it anyway !!

[DeathDealer]

Warhammer Online (http://www.warhammeronline.com/)

From the site:





Welcome to Warhammer Online
Warhammer Online is a new massively multiplayer online computer game that allows players to take on the role of outlaws and mercenary adventurers within a grim and gritty realisation of Games Workshop's dark, gothic fantasy world. Spawned on the margins of society, our players can rise to become mighty heroes or infamous villains, living on their wits or the cut of a blade! Famous or feared throughout the Empire for their daring and bloody deeds!

Warhammer Online
is set for release
in the Summer of
2004



And here is a few key points that I like ( make sure you go through the FAQ - they have alot of interesting and original stuff. they also sound like thay know what they want.)


Death

A player who is 'killed' will be revived and re-spawn at the closest bind point.

It’s a basic tenet of games that doing something right is rewarded and doing something wrong is penalised. If you die in WO there is a penalty. It's wrapped up in the core mechanics of the game so I can't disclose too much, but suffice to say that if you get killed you do take a penalty. And it's a penalty that we think will knock the player back a little without making them feel that they've fallen right back down the ladder, or without them having to repeat a lot of stuff in order to get to the point where they died. It's a fair system.

Some bind points need to be activated by the player, e.g. by hiring lodgings at an Inn, but there will always be other predefined bind points for the player to wake up at such as the banks of a river. The penalties for dying are mitigated by having a higher quality bind point.

Perm death is something with some appeal - that could give the game a very tense edge - but will probably be something we see on a server dedicated to the hardcore gamers. The goals in a game like that would probably be quite different to the regular game.



Experience

Experience in WHO doesn't work the same as in a lot of RPG systems. There’s no set amount of points as a reward for an action, which goes towards a pool that has incremental advances.

The game is largely skill-based. It's the skills that really define the character. You don't go online as a Warrior, or a Mage. But you can choose to follow the warrior profession, learn a bunch of warrior skills and, if you get bored, leave that and go onto something else, maybe become a thief. It's the skills that are important and getting better as a character means getting better at skills. And you get better at skills by using them.

Our system means that long-term players will build up a range of skills that result in them not taking so many hits in combat (they dodge and parry!) and also make them good at getting in extra attacks and generally doing cool stuff. We think this will work much better than simply adding a few numbers to your stats.


Magic

The Warhammer magic system is entirely unique and in keeping with the Warhammer background there is no personal manna pool as in other MMORPG’s. In the Warhammer World, all magic results from the raw energy of Chaos that flows into the world through the shattered warp gates at the north and south poles.

All wizards must learn how to channel raw magic from the environment. This energy is called the Winds of Magic and will behave as if it were an organic living entity, ebbing and flowing throughout the Reikland.

Throughout the game, we will be tracking two key numbers that will inform the magic system. These are reservoir size and fill rate. Basically each area will hold a certain amount of magical energy. As magicians cast spells they will use up this reservoir until there is not enough energy left to successfully channel a spell. Some areas will have small pool that fills rapidly and other a very large reservoir that takes a long time to replenish. Therefore this system should provide some very interesting, entertaining and tactical game play.

Eight different colours make up the Winds of Magic in Warhammer Online. Each spell has a profile based on each of the eight colours therefore the ability to cast a spell varies depending on the location and the Winds of Magic at any particular time.

The Winds of Magic can be influenced by phases of the moon, seasons, ceremonies or by GM events thus providing great flexibility to make magic an exiting and dynamic aspect of the game.

Initially there will be 25 different types of spells, along with 50 variations, plus the ability to summon specific creatures.

There are various spell families that have to be mastered before a wizard can become fully proficient in his art.

Channelling the raw energy of Chaos through your body to cast spells is a potentially hazardous activity and can sometimes cause more harm to the caster than the target!


Magic Items

They will be created and dispersed with caution. Magic items will be rare enough so that, if the player has one, they feel they've got something like a special treasure. And yes, expect racial variants.

Magic items are less of a focus in Warhammer than in some of the other games already out but that’s not to say that they aren’t there at all. However, basic items will be just as important to your character. Swords and lock picks are obviously tools of the trade but there will of course be some more interesting items, and some of those will need to be attuned to their owner in order for him/her to get the full benefit.

One of the magical paths we are currently developing is that of 'Artificier', that enables the practitioner to create or endow objects with magical power. This is a skill that Dwarf Runesmiths are the masters of and makes up for the fact that they don't have regular 'Wizards' as such. However, one of the delightful consequences of going down the 'skills' route is that our players should be far less reliant upon their items and equipment than they are in a traditional 'level' based games. We like this…and although, players will have the ability (if they have the cash!) to equip themselves with a range of weapons and armour types (crude, basic, rough, fine etc) they will not be level locked.

If your ability to survive combat is tied not to your armour, but to your skills (dodge, parry, evade, move in armour etc.), then even if you do have to shed your beloved plate mail in order to swim through an underwater cavern with a knife between your teeth, you can surface at the other end confident (ish) that you'll be able to fight and defeat whatever hellish monster is lurking there!


Combat

Combat will be handled as a skill like many other aspects of the game. As you move through the career system, you'll start to learn weapons ability skills - sword, dagger, bow etc. and then finally you'll learn weapon techniques. These techniques are layered over the basic system so that you can use full-on attack, or block and parry etc depending on who or what you are fighting.

Combat will be time-sliced to get around the problems of players lagging or congestion on the Internet. To initiate an attack, you will have to first click on your target and then subject to range or line of sight you will move into combat. However, the designers have worked hard to keep a high degree of risk in each encounter, with monsters and NPC's reacting in a variety of intelligent and unpredictable ways.

There are 100 standard, 10 mounted and 30 ballistic combat techniques that will make battle a very tactical and rewarding process.

Players can use a huge number of weapons including standard melee weapons (daggers, swords, axes), magical weapons (soul bound chaos swords, weapons with Dwarven runes), black powder weapons (handguns and rifles), and more traditional long range weapons (bows, crossbows).

We’ve drawn a lot of inspiration for the combat system from the mechanics of both Warhammer Battle and Warhammer Role-play for combat. Therefore it will feature WHFRP’s hit location system, which varies the effects of attacks depending upon where and how you are struck.

Because we are working with a skill-based system rather than simply powering up our players and monsters with extra hit points players will be able to learn both offensive and defensive skills that will considerably enhance their effectiveness in combat and then combine these with ‘combat techniques’, some of which will be specific to certain types of monster.

As well as standard weapons based combat there will be brutal hand-to-hand brawls too. Anyone who can't put away 15 tankards of Bugman's Best and then fight tooth and nail is a big girl! :D

Using stationary weapons like cannons and bolt throwers has been discussed but they're really not the priority at the moment. This is mainly a character based RPG, and the combat is similarly character based. Things like this, however, would be very sweet (and very appropriate) in what we have in mind for future expansions.

Firearms are going to be very cool but difficult to get hold of, hard to maintain, prone to accidents, and slow to reload. Having said all that, they do go bang very loud and, even if you miss your target, you can always run over and club them over the head with it.

[Androidpk]

This is the only mmorpg that has my attention, I think it has alot of promise. Beta is supposed to be starting sometime this month or next, but with these sort of games you never know.

[DeathDealer]

W00T!!

i hope it starts soon. I've been waiting for it for about a year now :)
have you heard any comments on that summer 2004 release date? Sounds way too optimistic to me.

[MojoHammer]

Good spy DD... This one has definitely peaked my interest. The media files are nice looking.

Hey I wonder if that one by that "English Company" is ever gonna be released? Yea.. Dragon Empires....-