Alive and Stuff

I'm still here!  I know you were worried.  Most of my time has been going to things like work and family these days.  I guess I am finally grown up?  Games are still being played though,  just my blogging about them has slowed down considerably.  It wasn't long ago that I posted 5 times a week.  However,  those days, like my WAR audience, are gone.

The last couple of weeks I have been playing a lot of Marvel Heroes.  It is surprisingly fun.  I'm not a comic book fan, but I like the Marvel movies and older TV shows/games.  So I am familiar with most of the bigger named characters.  The game is very low overhead too.  I can jump in for 30 minutes and have fun.  Captain America is who I have been playing the most of and he's a lot of fun.

Star Trek Online, sigh.  I have not been playing much lately and the future is not looking good.  I don't want to go into it too much, but their response to the whole lesbian Klingon flap was pretty bad.  I couldn't care less about the original issue,  but when you persecute someone, who you admit did nothing wrong, because of their beliefs it is just wrong.  I'm not sure how I can support them now.

Return of Reckoning...  I really like this project.  They have done an awesome job, and I'd actually really like to help out with programming.  However, after some thought,  I just can't risk getting sued by Games Workshop.  I know an actual lawsuit isn't likely, but that's not a risk I can take at this point in my life.  Which is a shame, there is so much potential there to learn and do cool stuff for players.

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At WAR Again

It all started with an email.  I received an inquiry about a site related to my WAR Item DB, the Arsenal of WAR.  Turns out it was from the WAR: Return of Reckoning people which run the emulator/private server.  Well, it got me to reading about it and it actually looked like it was in a state that could be enjoyable.

I decided to give it a whirl.  I still had my WAR installation from when it shutdown ( :(  ) so it was a quick matter to get into the game.  I have to admit, I was pretty impressed.  It was very playable.  I did a few scenarios and fought in the Nordland RvR lake.  It was just like old times!

Now, the game is far from complete.  Right now, only Tier 1 is available ( CR 12, RR 20).  The PvE quests are in, as are two scenarios:  Gates of Ekrund and Nodenwatch.  It's a little buggy in places, but nothing that really took away my enjoyment.  Tier 2 is right around the corner I hear.

It's always neat when people put their minds to something and recreate something as complex as WAR.

http://www.returnofreckoning.com/

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WAAAGH!

It's a WAR shirt kind of day.

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Was WAR doomed from the start?

Doomed is a strong word, of course.  The game had a good run and ranks among my favorites of all time.  However, it did have problems which were never really solved and contributed to it not being around today.  Certain design decisions were made during its development which the developers spent the next five years trying to work around.

I am mainly talking about the campaign system.  The basic idea was that realms would lock zones, breach fortresses, and then invade the enemies city.  Sounds cool right?  Well, it never really worked out that way.  It was, of course, more complex than what I wrote.  For example, lower level zones contributed to the Tier 4 zone scores and such.  The best gear was also only available in the opposing realms city.  This was eventually changed so defenders also had a chance to get gear.

One of the original issues was that it was very hard to actually get to the opposing city.  On an evenly matched server, you would expect that it would rarely happen.  That meant no one could really progress their character as the campaign was in perpetual limbo.  Also, due to the way the mechanics worked, by not showing up to defend it actually made it extremely difficult to  lock a zone.

Mythic spent a lot of time trying to fix the campaign situation.  They eventually changed the ways zones locked and the whole city itself.  Players got rewarded for attacking and defending the cities.  That just led to defenders letting the enemy get to their city so they could get a shot at the rewards.

I was never a big fan of the cities or the campaign.  I much preferred the struggle in particular zones where actual fighting happened.

Imagine if the end-game content worked from the start, and all the time they could have spent on expanding the game instead of trying to fix it.   But the design of the campaign system was something I think held the game back from the get go.

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Farewell Mythic

Last week, the news came down that EA shut down Mythic Entertainment.  You may know the name from such games as Warhammer Online, DAoC, and Ultima Online.  Although at the time of its demise it was focused on mobile games.

The games that made it famous, except for WAR ( :(  ), were recently transferred to Broadsword Online so they will live on.  I think the staff responsible for the games went with them, although I could be just making that up.  As for the mobile games they developed, I'm not sure if they will go on or not.

I am pretty bummed about the news, mainly for the folks who worked there.  The people at Mythic were always very good to me.  I was given the opportunity to visit them on several occasions.  They were trips I will always remember.  It made WAR more than just a game to me.

I also made friends from from the trip, both with the folks there and other bloggers.  I still talk to them today.  Although, if Keaven would get on Skype it would make things easier!  So, thanks for everything Mythic folks and I look forward to the next stuff you work on :)

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WAR gets a Finale

Warhammer Online's days are coming to an end, next week I believe.  In celebration of WAR and the fun we have had for 5 years, Luranni, put together a very nice video.  It brings back a lot of memories.  WAR's PvP grabbed me like no other game since.  In any case, enjoy the video :)

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WAR's Parting Gift: RR100

I recently got a tip from a reader (Thanks Meh!) that WAR added items to the new vendor in the starting aread (and Chaos Wastes).  At first, these vendors allowed you to purchase a boost up to 30/40.  But with a couple of weeks left, they added two new potions.

This one bumps you up to RR100!  It also gives you 2,500 War Crests to help you gear up.  It only costs 100 War Crests.  If you don't have 100, 10 War Crests will get you a potion that makes you 40/80.

I'm not sure I'll use the RR100 potion.  I made it to RR84 on my Engineer and I am fine ending the game with that.

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WAR is now Free to Play

Over the weekend, Mythic had a little surprise for us.  They disabled the subscription free and activated everyone account.  That means if you ever played WAR, and were not banned, you can now play again!  So for the next month and a half, WAR will be free to play.

In the announcement, they mention there will be NPC's to power you up.  I did a quick run through of the capital and did not see them, so they may be adding them soon.  I expect these new NPC's to boost Character Rank to 40 and maybe Renown Rank too.

The announcement also says "other unique experiences", which is a complete mystery to me.  Once I find out what they are I'll be sure to cover it ;)  Honestly, it's feels good to post about WAR again. I'm pretty interested to see what the free to play change does to the server populations.

http://www.warhammeronline.com/article/Parting-Gift

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What Could Have Been

As a part of Mythic shutting down WAR,  Carrie Gouskos reflected a bit on WAR and revealed some interesting details.  Carrie was a Producer for WAR, one of many the game seemed to have over its lifetime.  I had to opportunity to meet her on a couple of occasions, she always seemed passionate about the game.

While I'm sure the article was well-intentioned, it also did sting a bit.  Carrie mentioned several things they had planned but never saw the light of day.

iPhone App.  They had a Realm WAR iPhone App completed.  I'm not sure why they would not release something that was already done, but they didn't.  I never had an iPhone, but it still could have been cool.

Vampire Count Expansion.  It had long been hinted at in the files, but Carrie confirmed work was done on a Vampire Count themed expansion called Blood Hunt.

Free to Play.  I think this was public knowledge, but they made a Free to Play version of WAR for the Asian markets.  Makes you wonder why they couldn't have used that work for WAR the last couple of years.

Karaz-A-Karak and Karak Eight Peaks.  Sounds like these cities were relatively close to being finished.  Of course, they need a good reason to be put into the game.  With the state of the campaign, I don't see how they would fit.  That is a topic for another time though.

Hearing all of the cool stuff we didn't get to see doesn't really leave me with a good feeling.  Who knows, some of them could have helped save WAR.  In the end it just leaves me with more questions about what they were about and why they never saw the light of day.

 

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Should I Play WAR?

I was recently rummaging around my desk and I came across an unopened 60 day WAR timecard.  I got a few of them back when they were on sale from Amazon.  I think they were half price.  Hard to pass up a deal like that.

With WAR closing on December 18th, I've started to think about whether or not I want to use it.  On one hand, I've already spent the money so why not use it.  On the other hand, it is tough to get up the motivation to play a game that is shutting down.

It also doesn't help that Mythic has not said a word about any special events.  Usually games which shut down have some sort of in-game send off.  It does not appear that Mythic is going that route though.  So I am torn about whether to spend the time, which is really the limiting factor here, in the game before its demise.

What do you guys think about playing games until they are powered off?

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Could Sega continue the WAR?

Is it possible that Sega ( a Warhammer IP holder ) could pick up Warhammer Online?  Mehlindi over at WAR4EVER thinks it would be a good idea.  While I would love to see the game go on,  it seems like a long shot to me.  Although, the shutdown notice did phrase the sun setting in an odd way... is someone else going to be operating it?

we will no longer be operating Warhammer Online

Head on over to WAR4EVER to read the whole article.

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WAR's Legacy

With WAR closing down, it got me to thinking about how it has affected my life.  Sure, it is just a game, but it actually did a lot for me other than just provide me with countless hours of entertainment.  It also has a legacy in the MMO industry, but I'll leave that for another time (or writer).

Blog.  This blog was started because of WAR.  I had been looking for an excuse to create one, and once WAR came along I had something I wanted to write about.  The blog has since expanded to cover a lot of different things, but WAR still has the most posts by a very large margin.  It has served me well as a creative outlet.

Projects.  Writing about WAR is nice and all, but the game inspired me to create some other projects.  When WARDB went down, the community needed another item database.  I ended up creating the Arsenal of WAR to fill the gap.  It was my first 'major' web project.  It also got me into programming WAR addons a bit.

The Arsenal of WAR gave me the experience I needed to create other projects, like Dev Spy and Sites with Benefits. Overall, I have learned quite a bit about web programming thanks to WAR.

Friends.  I've made many friends because of WAR.  Bother players and developers.  I still keep in contact with some of my guild mates.  I also got to meet a number of WAR developers over the years due to being invited down to Mythic.  Then there is the Core Tester program, which let me get to know some of the devs and other players even better.

So how has WAR impacted your life?

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The End of WAR

Today we found out that Warhammer Online will be shutting its doors on December 18th.  I wish I could say I was surprised, but the silence over the past few months couldn't have meant anything else. I have not played the game for a while, but not a week (or day usually) goes by that I still don't think about it.

This blog was started because of Warhammer Online, and most of my readership was gained because of it.  I have at least 1,000 posts on the topic of WAR.  I've enjoyed every minute of playing the game and also writing about it.  I've made a bunch of friends because of the game as well.  So while I wish WAR's story had a different ending, I have no regrets over the time spent involved with the game.

I'm going to re-post something I wrote a while ago in the hopes WAR devs come across this post.  WAR helped me through some difficult times, which I will always appreciate.

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In honor of WAR's 4th Birthday I am going to do something I never do on this blog, get personal.  I've avoided doing it for years, as it is just the kind of person I am.  But this is a story I want to share and explains why WAR will always be special to me.

Around 2006, my wife and I decided to try and have a baby.  Everyone makes it look so easy to do, but in our case it was not.  Eventually, with the help of Doctors we were able to get pregnant.  Now, I am a naturally nervous person... always have been.  This event turned that up a few notches for sure, but we were very happy.

Sadly, that all ended one day in an Emergency Room.  It ended up being an Ectopic pregnancy, and my wife was rushed to surgery.  Needless to say, we lost the baby and it it was looking like my wife would be unable to have another.

Fast forward a year or so... medical science (IVF) is an amazing thing these days.  With the help of more doctors and even more money my wife was expecting again.  If I was nervous before, now I was scared out of my mind that something bad was going to happen.

This is where WAR came into the picture.  It still had a bit to go before launch, but reading all about it and starting this blog to write about it provided the perfect distraction.  The timing could not have been better, as the same week WAR went live my first daughter was born. Like WAR, she is now 4 years old.

A couple years later when my wife was pregnant again, WAR was still there to provide a distraction so I didn't constantly worry.  Everything went fine that time too :)

So thank you to Mythic and all those who work(ed) on WAR.  You and your game helped me through some very rough times.  I will always be grateful for that.  Happy Birthday!

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State of WAR

Sadly, this will be a quick post.  While I don't play WAR anymore, I still keep checking in on it to see what's going on.  There have been no developer posts for months now.  The 1.4.9 patch which was in development and placed on the PTS has not made it live yet.  The patch was pushed to the PTS four months ago.

The last communication we received from Mythic was on June 17th.  It basically said that they would no longer be selling 6 month subscription game time codes.  The explanation was that they were not used very often.  The tin-foil hat explanation is that WAR does not have 6 months left.  I guess we will find out soon.

I wish Mythic would communicate with the players, they are still playing monthly subscriptions.  I'd even consider coming back if I knew Mythic was still working on the game.  For all its faults, Warhammer Online still has some of the best PvP out there.

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WAR F2P?

Not quite.  Recently, an interesting post was made to the WAR forums.  It was pretty interesting. Here is what was posted:

Time-deduction payment?  This is certainly something we have not seen before.  Obviously, the thought of an incoming free to play change was brought up.  Sadly, this is probably not the case.  Remember way back when WAR had a Korean server, and was using a different business model?  This reminds me of that.  How it ended up back in the game is anyone's guess.  Just a bug I, sadly.

It does pose an interesting question: Werit, if WAR went F2P would you come back?  I think the answer to that would be yes, but it has nothing to do with money.  It would show that the studio was making an effort when it came to WAR.  That's not to detract from the people currently working on the game, but it takes a team to run a game.  That effort would restore my confidence in the future of WAR.

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New WAR Career Builder

Since I have stopped playing WAR, I've decided to retire the career builder as it costs money to host.  Initially, I was worried about leaving the community without this important resource.  Luckily, the community stepped up and made a replacement.  You can find the new career and renown builder here:

http://waronlinebuilder.org/

I've set the old career builder to redirect to this new site.  In the next week or two I will pull the plug for good.  It's been fun maintaining the resource and watching the community use it, but I just cannot justify the cost anymore. So, please do check out the new site and lend your support :)

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For me, the WAR is over

This week, my Warhammer Online subscription expired.  After some thinking, I decided not to renew it.  This is a first in my 4.5 year history with WAR.  It was not an easy decision to come by as the game means a lot to me.  But given its current state, I made the decision not to re-subscribe.

The reason for this is rather simple though.  I don't feel Mythic is giving the game the support it needs.  The game recently lost its lead developer, Keaven.  That leaves one known developer to work on the game.  That is just not going to cut it.  I'm not trying to take anything away from Kevin, but WAR is a big game and needs a team.

Sadly, this also means I won't be supporting the Arsenal of WAR Item Database or the Career Builder any more.  The latter will probably become unavailable in the next month or two since I won't be paying for another years worth of service.

I will still be following WAR and posting news about it here.  Who knows, maybe Mythic will show that WAR is still a priority and I will resubscribe.

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I don't care about winning

When playing video games, I rarely care about actually beating the game, or winning versus other players. This weekend I played a bunch of Civilization 5 and is a great example of what I wrote above.  I don't worry about the score of the game, or even the victory conditions.  For me, Civilization is all about the journey.  The same goes for most strategy games I play.

Speaking of Civilization, there is not much better than starting a new game.  So much is unknown about the world around you.  Which resources are nearby?  How close are the other empires?  What is the geography like?  Getting those questions answered is part of what makes Civilization a great game.

There are exceptions to my not caring about winning, of course.  League of Legends is one game where I want to win.  I even find it hard to play Normal games because I know I could be spending my time in ranked matches instead.  To spend 45 minutes in a match just to lose it ends up being pretty demoralizing.  But a win is oh so sweet.

In scenario based PvP ( WAR, SWTOR et), I really don't mind losing.  There is still character progression (forward, not backwards like LoL), and as long as the match was fun I am happy.

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Farewell Keaven

Last week we found out that WAR's Lead Developer, Keaven Freeman, was no longer with Mythic.  We don't have any of the details, but it did occur in the same time frame as the announced EA layoffs.  In any case, this is a pretty big loss for WAR.

I had the opportunity to meet Keaven on a few occasions during visits to Mythic.  He was always very nice and open about the game.  Most importantly, he was very passionate.  You could find him on the forums having conversations with the players about a number of topics too.  While it was obvious that he never had the resources to really support WAR, he made due and the game was more enjoyable for it.

So what does Keaven's departure mean for the game?  Sadly, nothing good.  There is only one other developer that we know is working on the game, the aptly named Kevin.  There could be others working behind the scenes of course.  I'm not sure how one person can support a MMO like WAR, but I guess we will see.  The 1.4.9 patch has already been delayed and cut back in scope, which is never a good sign.

You can read Keaven's post about leaving Mythic here. Thanks for all the hard work Keaven, you will be missed.

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1.4.9 hits the PTS

WAR version 1.4.9 is now live on the PTS.  The main feature of this patch is career balancing with a focus on the Black Orc and Swordmaster.  Other careers are also getting some attention.  Some buffs, others balancing.  Take a look below for the details.

The second part of the Stronghold Saga Live Event is also probably coming with 1.4.9.

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Bright Wizard

Several spells now add Weapon DPS when calculating damage.

Combustion Mechanic: the Explosion damage formula has been altered to deal about half as much damage based on Career Rank as it used to, but will now calculate additional damage based on Renown Rank.

Meltdown deals additional damage based on Renown Rank.


Sorceress

Several spells now add Weapon DPS when calculating damage.

Dark Magic Mechanic: the Backlash damage formula has been altered to deal about half as much damage based on Career Rank as it used to, but will now calculate additional damage based on Renown Rank.

Dhar Wind deals additional damage based on Renown Rank.


Engineer

Gun Turret, Bombardment Turret, and Flame Turret: These abilities can be cast while moving. The turret delivery box will no longer appear but the character will go through a suitably alternate animation during the cast time.


Magus

Several spells now add Weapon DPS when calculating damage.

Summon Pink Horror, Summon Blue Horror, and Summon Flamer: These abilities can be cast while moving.


Swordmaster

Sapping Strike - Requires Perfect Balance, Leads to Normal Balance. Deals VALUE0 damage. Removes 50 Action Points from your target. You recover 50 Action Points.

Heaven's Blade - All your melee attacks gain a 25% chance to reduce all of your target's resists by VALUE0 and their armor by VALUE1 for 10 seconds. During this time, both you and your groupmates within 100 feet will benefit from the stolen resist and armor.

Phantom's Blade - All your melee attacks gain a 25% chance to reduce your target's wounds by VALUE0 for 10 seconds. During this time, both you and your groupmates within 100 feet will benefit from the stolen wounds. You and your groupmates will be healed by the amount increased.

Nature's Blade - All your melee attacks gain a 25% chance to randomly steal 160 stat points from targets within 30 feet of you for 10 seconds. During this time, both you and your groupmates within 100 feet will benefit from the stolen stats.


Black Orc

Arm Breaka - Needs Da Best Plan!! No Plan after dis! Deals VALUE0 damage. Removes 50 Action Points from your target. You recover 50 Action Points.

Da Greenest - All your melee attacks gain a 25% chance to reduce all of your target's resists by VALUE0 and their armor by VALUE1 for 10 seconds. During this time, both you and your groupmates within 100 feet will benefit from the stolen resist and armor.

Da Toughest! - All your melee attacks gain a 25% chance to reduce your target's wounds by VALUE0 for 10 seconds. During this time, both you and your groupmates within 100 feet will benefit from the stolen wounds. You and your groupmates will be healed by the amount increased.

Da Biggest! - All your melee attacks gain a 25% chance to randomly steal 160 stat points from targets within 30 feet of you for 10 seconds. During this time, both you and your groupmates within 100 feet will benefit from the stolen stats.

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