SE Head Start is alive and well

Oneputt here! So it is finally here. WAR has begun …well at least for me, Flea and Zan.

I logged in at 7:10 AM EDT and the servers were a buzzin’. Upon entry, I was immediately directed to Volkmar, a Core RvR server and asked to join Order. My response, “Why the hell not?!”

So I have now created Oneputt, a Bright Wizard for Order on Volkmar! I checked my mailbox and my pre-order items were there! Nice.

Scenario queues were instant for me. After a handful of quests and 2 scenarios where Destruction players who were already lvl 11 schooling 8 Bright Wizards all level 3-4, I was still happy to finally be in game. Regardless of the population now, it will get better.

I did a lot of research last night on server forums on Warhammer Alliance. Bottom line: it’s way too early to tell. The CE players were having a hard time making judgements as well because they need the SE players in game. Lots of comments such as “it’s a ghosttown” and “scenario queues are 45 mins long.” An obvious sign to me that a low pop server or too high a population on 1 faction is a very bad thing. I know it will even out eventually.

Additionally, and I’m still not 100% convinced which is the best, Open may be a fun ruleset to play. However, forums indicated to me that zerging in the new areas was definitely occurring. And where one side is so heavily populated, that might be fun for a bit, but not forever. I know I’ll miss the times zerging enemy player towns but then again, I consider myself a video gamer. I respect video game designers. And the Core ruleset is how the designers designed the game. So I want to also respect that. As I mentioned in a prior post, the game is intended to lead you to RvR lakes. Makes perfect sense since it creates a specific, consolidated grouping of players to pvp in. But then again, you can always do /rvr and flag yourself at any time on a Core server!

See you in game!

P.S. Love this little guild story and example of how the Tome totally kicks ass by Syp on Waaagh! Check it out. You’ll soon be sporting a fancy new cape!

Open RvR demand decreases

Oneputt here.

Yo, Flea! So check out this post at the Warhammer Herald. They just released a list of additional servers for the SE Head Start launching tomorrow morning. They are adding 24 total servers, 2 Open, 2 RP and the rest are Core! Whoa! This leads me to believe that Open RvR demand has dwindled.

Perhaps this is in the indication, but is it? PvP servers are not always the most popular in MMOs. Yes, there is a long list but PvE servers typically have the largest audience. But I’m actually very shocked considering the nature of WAR!

I have been thinking of going Open RvR just because it seems fun and what I’m used to playing. But I do not want to play on a ruleset that isn’t popular with the community. It isn’t because I want to go with the status quo but mainly due to population. There is nothing worse than playing on low pop servers in my opinion.

I’m going to investigate on the forums tonight and see what folks are saying. We gotta figure it out soon. WAR for us starts tomorrow! Kick ass!

I’m the Decider!

Fleabowitz here!!

I hope all you CE fans are having a great time in your head start..I’ll see you tomorrow! Until then I have a huge decision to make: what character will I raise and nurture as my own, and what server ruleset to play. I dedicated my last week of Open Beta play on the Zealot class. I’m having so much fun playing a support character even though the DPS players have realized that to break the line in RvR they must be concentrate fire on ME. I’m not used to being the default target, however the Zealot and Rune priest instant heal spells and HoTs can be thrown during “run for yourlife” retreats taking some of the sting away. I’ve never participated in an Open Beta before and am grateful that I had the opportunity to experiment with the differnet classes without the having to commit to a class and character. Thanks Mythic! The Zealot class is a good Destruction mirror to the Order’s Rune Priest class which I played my first week of the Open Beta. Both have a nice mix of healing and ranged DPS spells, so it’s Zealot or Rune Priest for Fleabowitz. We’ll know this week!

Open Vs. Core:

I’m kicking myself on this one. I spent the entire Open Beta focused on classes and game play solely on the Core RvR server rule set. Oneputt is convinced that the Open RvR servers will have much longer legs, fun wise, as we level up. Unrestricted open War on Tier 3 and 4 does sound appealing, I just worry about the potential gank-fests and the lack of RvR focus that the Core servers have in the RvR “areas” in each zone.

Crafting – Cultivation:

During my Zealot play I spent more time with the crafting tools. I picked up and concentrated on cultivation acheiving level 15. For some reason, cultivation resonated with me. It’s so simple: open bag, place seed in plot, add nutrients, soil and water (if available), close bag and contiue playing. In about 2 minutes the plant is ready to be harvested. Eventually the tool will enable four plats to be grown at the same time. I think the simplicity of this craft is what made it so appealing to me. For some reason it’s mind numbingly fun!

So thats it. My posts hardly count as a review but damn, this game will take weeks to scribe a worthwhile, comprehensive review. Please remember that first impressions can be deceiving, look at how AoC turned out! I hope that will not the case with Warhammer and I look forward to posting leveling updates in the weeks to come. Waaaggh!

Woot! Server lists, rulesets announced and some thoughts

Oneputt here. Mythic has announced their server lists and rulesets! They are launching with Open RvR despite saying they may delay that ruleset! Kick ass.

As I see, they plan to keep chickening in Open RvR. Ultimately, I think this is a mistake as I mentioned in my previous post. What some of you may or may not know, chickening does exist on the Core RvR servers as well! If you come back from Tier 3 to Tier 1 and you are flagged for RvR, then you turn in to a chicken. So while you can do quests or help friends and guildies, you cannot RvR in those areas. If you are a high lvl healer, and your friends are flagged, you cannot heal your friends because you’ll turn in to a chicken as that flags you for RvR. You cannot touch any siege weapons as that flags you for RvR. Something to keep in mind.

Another potential annoyance with Open RvR… I’ve noticed collision detection only occurs if you are flagged for RvR. Since you’ll always be flagged for RvR on an Open server, collision detection will always be on. Kinda annoying when you are in towns but not that big a deal. It could provide issues when you are in narrow passage ways such as dungeons, caves or tombs. Hopefully this was properly QAed. Time will tell!

So what are we playing? Need to decide quick. How about the rest of the community? Let us know your thoughts on the Open ruleset and servers.

Server List and Rulesets For Launch

New patch 4.1.1 out today

Oneputt here. Mythic has released a new patch, 4.1.1 with improvements and fixes. Check it out.

Open Beta impressions – the major gripes

Hi all, Oneputt here. Just in case you’ve been living under a rock, Open Beta is in full swing. If you aren’t in it, then you are missing out! There is something “special” knowing that whatever toon you create is going to be wiped in a few days; it lets you try out any and all classes without the “fear” of losing your time invested or choices made in an already created toon! Me likey.

This last weekend and week has been some great play. I have a few toons up to lvl 7-9 on both Order and Destruction. Mostly playing ranged casters such as bright wizard, magus, shadow warrior and squig herder. The days have been filled with plenty of killing badies, asshole enemy players in scenario and open world RvR, and exploring zones, Altdorf and the Inevitable City.

WAR is great. Hands down. Time will tell if it lives up to WoW standards but immediately, and as Flea said, I feel like I’m already at end game even at lvl 1. Jumping in to RvR or even PvE, it always feels epic. Great touch by the designers.

But I do have some major gripes and some minor:

Travel - seriously? As Flea pointed out, the Order travel is so friggin gay. It’s really lame to be puttering off in this little chopper and it is obvious the same animation used when you are riding a mount. So even though I’m strapped into a helicopter and I’m not actually even sitting on anything, I look like I’m straddling an invisible dildo. And the Destruction travel is lame but not as lame. Instead you just fly off on a magic carpet ride. That’s right, you ride a magus disc.

I appreciate it doesn’t take 8 mins to fly to a destination (like in WoW) but I am disappointed that I don’t really travel. This really is the issue of not having a truly “open” world like in WoW. Yes in WAR, you can go from 1 zone to the other without a load screen, but when you switch tiers, it must be an instanced server which means a load screen. This creates a closed world, one that is linear and can’t be fully explored. I feel like I can only travel in similar sized rectangles (tiers).

Now I understand the design reasons for this setup, but I am still disappointed. WoW does win with this aspect. It really is f’ing amazing when you think about the scale and not having to load except for true instances or the large bodies of land.

Crafting – sucks royal ass. I’m very disappointed in the crafting so far. I appreciate Mark Jacobs wanting to create a robust crafting system that lets you work outside the “recipe box,” but honestly, why do I need 5 fucking items, from at a min 2 different gathering professions to make a talisman? And the fact that I can only have 1 gathering profession means I must go buy the shit I can’t gather, get from guildies or have an alt to gather the other stuff. And when I’m only lvl 4 and have dick for money, it just ins’t fun. I lose interest completely. It should be easier and I should be given basic recipes to make some low level items that are beneficial. Otherwise, it takes all the fun out of it.

Second, what the fuck?! Why does it have to be so damn complicated to make an item. I need 5 items to make a talisman? 4 items to make a healing potion with apothocary? Stack on top of the fact you don’t have recipes, it makes me not want to use any items because I don’t want to waste items if it is going to be a shit potion. And not knowing recipes doesn’t matter. People will post the recipes all over the net. So why fight it? They should make a tab on the side that records what I make. That way I can still “discover” items and can refer back to them later in the game

Chickening - This isn’t so much a gripe, but I did see even on the Core server, you can be chickened if you are flagged for RvR and come to a lower tier. This makes sense but it still disappointed knowing I can’t come back, even on a PvE server, and do the RvR lakes without that penalty. Time will tell if this plan will be played out. I will say, it was very funny to see a chicken running around, who looked at me and then said, “don’t laugh”. Of course, I lol’ed at his lame ass.

Overall, this game is very well designed, great content and gameplay with very few bugs. It is very stable. I’m very impressed and it is fun as hell. Time will tell though as we get further in. Can’t wait for launch!

Open RvR server!

Oneputt here! Mythic has launched an Open RvR server to try out during Beta. I’ll see you guys on there tonight!

I’ll be playing Oneputt as a Shadow Warrior (Order).

Official Head start dates announced!

Oneputt here. Mythic announced the official head start dates today!

Flea, Zan and myself all pre-ordered the standard editions unfortunately. But you lucky CE bastards get 2 days more head start! Congrats. Especially since it sold out 28 years ago. …seriously.

Collector’s Edition, Sunday, 9/14
Standard Edition, Tuesday, 9/16

OFFICIAL LAUNCH, Thurs, 9/18

RvR – Kick ass

Fleabowitz Here!!

 

Oneputt and I played for quite a long stretch last night.  We starting with Elf characters, myself behind my Archmage Fawnleabowitz and Oneputt controlling a Shadow Warrior named Choder.  (we are a very sophisticated group)  We took our level one elves over to Nordland, the Empire starting zone, to give the classes a run through.  I didn’t have the instant affinity for the Archmage class as I did with both Zealot or Rune Priest.  I think the action point system used by Archmages and Warrior Priests gave me flashbacks to the WoW Rouge combo point system.  Personally, I’m ready for something new.  By about level three we decided to jump back to our Beta Mains for some RvR.  (Fatleia the Run Priest and Oneputt the Bright Wizard)

 

We immediately entered the fray in the contested area outside Nordland’s war camp.  We joined a Warband of over 20 players which was a first for me.  It worked great and is absolutely critical when playing as a support class.  Dishing out heals is a major contributor to Renown points and rank and having your Warband member status available makes the application of these heals faster and more productive.  Large Warbands also gave us the ability to complete the repeatable RvR quests several times yielding over a 1000exp per hand-in.

 

After about 10 deaths in the RvR open encounter we decided to hop into a scenario.  We joined an in progress “capture the flag” match and immediately hit the ground running.  Oneputt took the lead and I took my support roll throwing up heals.  The highlight of the match was keeping Oneputt alive while he sniped with his fireball nukes.  Our Order team lost this round but I managed to pickup 5000 exp, not die, and throw out about 9K in healing points.  We were also able to continue working on our repeatable open RvR quests while in the “controlled” scenario play.  Nice touch!

 

Something amazing I must report…At level 6 RvR felt like played with the sophistication of near end game content.  It was fantastic fun and will be a welcome addition to the standard leveling PVE quests.  A big contributor to the excitement and addictive factor is the introduction of the Renown ranking system and attainable Renown gear.

 

Next stop, more time with the Zealot class….

Where are we? Part 2

After looking at queue times, I’m moving where we are playing Destruction to Kraka Drak. Here is where we are playing.

Abhorash – Order
Kraka Drak – Destruction