The Official Warhammer Online Thread

Let's use this thread for any and all discussions about WAR!

I picked up the game last night after my accounting exam. I can't wait to get home today and hop on. Many of the player reviews are gushing with praise (which is highly typical in the first 24 hours) but what genuinely pleases me so far are two things: a) it seems relatively stable and b) the CEO of the company seems like a sharp, pragmatic, and focused guy.

I read the two CEO interviews on Gamespot and was genuinely impressed by the CEO. So many times it seems like the leader is either a great business man/woman or a great developer but not both. This guy seems to realize that you have to have both to survive.

Your thoughts?

 

I've only played for a couple hours, but so far I like it a lot. I've been a warhammer fan since I was a kid (haven't played the tabletop in a few years) and it seems to have captured the essence of the warhammer universe really well... and so far I really like the game mechanics (again, only a couple hours, so I'll reserve final judgment)

Best of all it plays fine on my xps 1330... since I'm in Europe all year and thus away from my desktop, that's a big relief

 

After playing the game for two nights straight almost, I can conclude that this game is very well rounded. It is unlike most other MMORPG's, because you can do anything for EXP. It's not much of a grind, because you can do whatever you want to level up! You can do public quests, or PvP, or just do regular quests or open RvR.

The PvP aspect of this game is pretty nice as well. Through the first two tiers the classes seemed to be pretty balanced, and Scenarios or RvR are always fun.

You will be used to some of the quests if you have played WoW, but instead of killing 30 boars to get 5 slabs of boar meat for some quest, you would just need to kill 5, since the drop rate is not 10%. It also points you exactly where on the map to go for a quest, and don't worry about downtime like eating/drinking to regain your health/mana, because there is very little downtime.

As a former World of Warcraft player, my opinion is that this game is more fun and entertaining. It has taken the best features of MMORPG's and combined them into one. If you are thinking about playing Warhammer, I suggest you pick it up asap!

 

I was in both preview weekends, but wasted my head start have not played the final version yet... no time!

 

@ Historian

When you say it runs on your m1330, what do you mean exactly? What fps/settings are you running at?

 

Is it gonna be possible to run WAR on ati radeon x1270 low-med settings? I don't expect it to be pretty, just stable fps?

 

I"m having a total blast. Here are some screenies of my black orc Deadcatt. All settings maxed out no problem, no lags on my xps 1530.

 

i was thinking of getting this game or going back to AoC, im going to see more of what you guys think, graphic style looks cool according to iggy's screenshots

 

I was in open beta, preview and head start. The game has gone through a few changes in that short time and has only become better. I hope they continue this trend and I look forward to the release of new character classes in the future.

I am originally a 40k fan (tabletop game, I have a Tyranid army) and can not wait for the 40k mmo to come out. This game will have to due until then

Needless to say, the game runs great on my lappy and desktop.

 

If yall are interested I have rolled Destruction on the Volkmar Server. Currently a Level 25 Zealot. Game name is Dalal, and I am in a Pre-Launch Hardcore guild that is top 10 on the server. (The Deadliest Sin - deadliestsin.guildlaunch.com) Feel free to send me a tell if your interested or want to party up! Going back to game though to smash some stunties!

 

Anyone know how it runs on a X4500 yet?

 

Hmm...for a minute there I thought I was looking at WoW shots.

Shame on you! Any good accountant realizes that spending money on a monthly basis for an MMO is a moneysink and not financially sound. Fail.

 

I am running this on an HP HDX and am not pleased with the performance. I get on average 34 fps. I would think that with a laptop like this I would get much better performance out of it, but alas, it is not the case. Any recommendations on how to improved this would be greatly appreciated.

HP HDX Pavilion 9494nr
Intel Core2duo 2.1 Penryn
nVidia 8800m GTS 512
4GB RAM
Windows Vista Ultimate x64

 

WAR rocks. If you love PvP you'll love this game as it's built on PvP from the ground up. You can join in scenario's (like BG's) at lvl 1, and the RvR will be massive PvP (think bigger than AV BG).

I run this on a Vostro 1500, with 8600MGT 3Gig RAM without any issues.
When the time comes for big RvR with lots of players running about, it may be an issue.

 

That is weird.... I think I get better performance on mine @_@

 

so...is it better than AoC? Im fighting myself deciding if i should go back to aoc or get this game

 

The game intends to have like 500+ people on 500+ people in the end game content for the fight for fortresses and actual cities. This is an amazing game hands down. AoC was an epic Fail! This is not.

 

looks like i might just pick it up then, are thee any online deals for it? Like to download the game or anything? Or it is pay 50 bucks and quit whining

 

If you pre ordered it you would have got into the 2 preview weekends, open beta, 2 bonus in-game items, 3 day Live game head start, and if you pre ordered at a store and not online, you also got a UFS deck, for $50. But now it's "stop your whining" i think.

 

ok lol just making sure, i didnt pre-order it. last question is how the game runs with crossfire? if the game supports it and if it helps at all?

 

How does anyone know this yet?
Is endgame reachable in the week+ of preview+ the last few days?
Are you using beta-everyone-log-in-now data?

According to the friend whose account I will try tonight, there are a few servers which are extremely busy all the time (insane queues) and a few which are MUCH lesser used.

So far this is just like Conan at release except that sieges do indeed work.
Release is nuts, then people find issues.
(to be fair, Conan then borked themselves with bad patches)

Given that Lineage2 has been doing the siege thing for 4+ years with notably better graphics, (and the artists did a LOT more with a LOT less) this isn't really enough to make it a great game.

The gameplay and balance will be everything. (I reserve judgement on those until I actually play it.)

From the forums I have read, WH has many of the same issues WoW has...
-One side or the other being massively disadvantaged in multiple scenarios
-physical melee damage dealers and ranged physical being godclasses (despite the rock/paper/scissors design) Sound familiar?
-healers who are 100% unkillable with less than 3 friends. (resilient/tough = good, near-perma-invulnerable = bad)

Now to be fair, these are forum complaints... so take with a grain of salt... but these complaints are repeated pretty much everywhere I looked.
Maybe Warhammer got WoW's whine-fest forum trolls as well...

 

There's also some servers that have a nice inbetween. The server I play on is usually High - High and maybe a short queue at most.

How is it like Conan? Release wasn't nuts, I was playing the headstart through release. Nothing bad happened.

Balance is just a dream, basing whether you should play it or not on it is unrealistic. No matter what people will always claim "X is imbalanced!!" Even if the max hit was nothing or 0, people would complain that a certain career is imbalanced...

Point: Play the game. Ignore the forum whiners. Then decide whether you like it or not.

 

To answer your question KernalPanic I was an elder beta tester, so I have experienced Tier 4 content. Of course there is no guarantee for this to happen after beta, but considering this game is all about RvR and that anyone can just go to the area to gain not only PvP experience but PvE experience its going to happen again. The PvP is not instanced except for the Scenarios which are like Battlegrounds except there are like 20 different variations throughout the tiers.

There are ques, but I believe they are only on the collector's edition head start servers that opened last Sunday. The majority of people want to be on the most populated server. They are slowly increasing the cap of the servers so that they don't crash, and they have gone from having a 700 person que to a max of 100 people at peak hours. I have yet to experience a server crash on my server and have only experienced a maximum down time of 2-3 Hours every other day or so.

There are no game breaking bugs at the moment and unlike AoC the game actually runs well on computers that aren't High End Systems. Sure the graphics aren't as good in War, but AoC didn't even run well on top of the line computers when it was released. I disagree about the graphics part completely, but its an opinion. Have you actually seen this game played on Max settings? They didn't release any screenshots or videos of Max settings until early September. All beta clients and videos were running on an approximate Medium Settings, there was no option to turn up or down the settings.

The game is based on groups and warbands aka raids. Leveling in Tier 1 is better solo, but as you progress it is more necessary for you to level in a group. There is actually very little experience lost if a group member joins which encourages cooperation. Lets put it this way they intend you to feel like your part of an army not an individual. It is similar to the table top game in the sense that you are just a foot soldier. It requires teamwork to take people down and it is really rare to see people fighting one on one. Healers will always be hard to take down because if hit one their teammates will focus on you and other healers will heal the healer as well. This is all just my experience maybe its because I am always in a coordinated group, but I have noticed that 90% of my enemies are in coordinated groups as well.

Sure the game has balancing issues at the moment I'll give you that, but the developers have stated that they balanced the game for tier 4 RvR. This means 1-30 there are going to be some issues obviously. I just haven't noticed them that much.

The game's PvE is like a story. You have something called the Tome of Knowledge and as you progress through the story you unlock chapters which reveal more about what is going on. It really feels more like an RPG in this sense. You also cannot just level in only your races area. Once you get to about level 14 maybe 15 it is usually a good idea to leave your area and fly to another to do their quests as well. This is not a long process and only takes about 5 minutes.

Sure bash on the game all you want, but I love it. I am a PvPer and was let down by AoC after looking forward to it for awhile. Don't get me wrong AoC is a good game, the first 20 levels of the game were by far the best I have experienced in an mmo, but it had balancing issues, poor performance, leveling gaps, and unfinished content. The combat system also was amazing, but got extremely boring by the time your 50 and only repeat the same two fatalities or animations. I used to play the tabletop game when I was younger so this is something I have been looking forward to. They seem to have done a good job so far and it keeps those people who love Warhammer lore happy.

 

So now I have played it... I promised myself I'd play for at least 4 hours... and admittedly it wasn't a bad experience.

I played a Bright wizard (magic damage dealer) and a Black Orc (tank)

Graphics/animation = lesser than lineage2(4-year-old game), absolutely destroyed by something like AoC. Slightly better than WoW. This is the game's biggest weak-point and it shows.

The engine is flawless on the godbox my friend has (SLI 8800GTX) at 1680x1050 maxed with everything on and also flawless at 1440x900 maxed on my laptop listed below. Honestly, anything above an 8600GT is likely a waste in this game unless yo need to play at 1920x1200. There is some server lag for busy servers, but no client lag at all. I am going to try a few more servers... I DO wish they would rank the servers by ping time.

Gameplay = fun, but it feels like quake with swords and sorcery.
Tactics right now consist of a few classes completely destroying everyone else regardless of rock/paper/scissors. Some tactics work like hiding behind tanks on choke-points, but melee damage dealers and physical ranged are pretty much unstoppable. Cooperation with healers and tanks and artillery does work wonders and a good group shows when the other team doesn't just load up on overbalanced classes. I am confident they will look at this, as it is all too easy for those classes right now.

I haven't quite figured out why mages even exist at this point. They tend to die all too quickly and don't deal any more damage than melee or physical ranged. Tanks are nice, but honestly they aren't that necessary in Tier1... not with melee damage dealers being so strong. The black orc was by FAR more fun... but I gotta say that destruction winning all the time might have baised this a bit. Server balance always seems to teeter towards destruction...

Equipment... everyone wears the same thing... the quest rewards are the same... sure you can dye it... but the choices are... well worse than leaving it. The looks are ok, but as the graphic engine is low-end the customization is as well. I still like WAR better than WoW for most things and frankly WoW isn't much different in late-game either... that and the lack of hello-kitty disco gear is nice.

I DO like the PvP and the fact they toss you in at level 1. I love the fact they buff you to be useful if you are below the recommended level. You still get spanked by higher-levels, but it isn't too bad at all. I liked the integration so much that I was only PvE'ing when I was waiting for PvP.
Advancing in PvP was a lot of fun and learning the ropes is not difficult at all.
The game actually rewards you for PvPing more than PvEing. Kudos on a PvP system that works.

The game's storyline and "soul" seem to be missing... I don't feel attached to anything in the game and most of it is just an excuse to kill things. I like the greenskin area a LOT better than a empire area, but both are pretty much just "quake" level storyline.

Overall, I'd say its not bad... but it isn't the second coming either. I can see a LOT of commonalities with AoC, but WAR wins on PvP minigames and client compatibility, AoC wins on graphics, soul, and storyline.

I gotta say that MMORPG isn't quite the right description... its more like a hybrid of quake/rpg in an MMO environment. However, I can see how someone who likes quake and is less interested in RPG stuff would enjoy this.
Basically if character building and storyline are second-place an you just want to kill people in PvP, then WAR is for you.

I will not be purchasing this game, as frankly I still think Lineage2 is an overall better game.

 

SLI is not working in the current build so it doesn't require much to run and it runs well. So your friends computer will have it run even better when SLI is supported.

The Bright Wizards when you get higher are one of the classes a lot of people complain about being over powered. Lets just say one of the scenarios I was just in had a bright wizard do 113k dmg and the next closest was a sorcerer with like 70K dmg. They have very strong abilities. You just have to learn how to stay in the back and avoid any fire since you can be taken out fairly quickly but this is obvious. There is something called collision detection which means enemy players cannot move through you. Tanks can form a perimeter which prevent people from attacking you.

When you start to get higher the gear definitely starts changing. Its pretty generic in the beginning but it is in all game. I think a lot of the stuff is similar because it's based off the tabletop game which has set uniforms things like that.

Glad you enjoyed some of it.

 

Would this run on the laptop in my spec?

 

Well I like it. I don't see it as a quake style mmo? it's got all the ingredients from all the popular mmo's and the same playstyle, so I have no idea how people can come to that conclusion. The graphics may not be Crysis level but they're not meant to be - go to a Games Workshop store and check out the models, the characters ingame are virtually identical. When you've been gaming as long as me you know gameplay comes first and pretty graphics second.

So far the only other arguments I've seen are "it's not [Enter MMO Here]" or "it's Imbalanced". From what I've seen the rock/paper/scissors design is working fine, it's that you have the same problem as with all mmo's: idiots picking the class they want (which is fine) then moaning that thier glass cannon couldn't take down the tank a level higher, solo. Or that thier tank couldnt kill 15 mages solo.

 

Andrew, be careful... your statement borders on extreme fanboism...
"Anyone who doesn't believe like me is an idiot" is starting down the wrong road.

I am no newbie to MMORPGs OR FPS
I've been playing FPS since Castle wolfenstein (original) and spent my early college days manually tweaking my extended memory manager to allow the most I could get out of my 4MB of RAM so I could play the original Doom.
I've been playing MMOs since UO and the Everquest (1) beta.
I know a thing or two about both types of games and about balance. I am not expecting a wizard to kill everything, nor my tank to wade in and kill 80 players. I am expecting to be a strategic piece of a team game.
In the case of a wizard... fragile ranged artillery
In the case of the tank... front-line damage absorber

The issue with warhammer is that the game is supposed to have a rock/paper/scissors thing going on.

Tanks > Melee damage dealers > Mages > Tanks

This means you are supposed to have advantages.. . ideally this isn't a guaranteed win. This means provided all else is the same more than likely the class with the advantage wins.

This means as a bright wizard a tank class is probably going to lose (provided you didn't stand right in front of the tank) and this mechanic does actually work.
This means as a bright wizard a melee damage class is probably going to win.

More often than not a tank even a few levels higher loses if a wizard gets a bead on him before he closes the gap. Tanks are not easy to kill, but a wizard will get the job done just fine... Note this is not quick kill by any means without a spectaclar string of crits.

The melee damage dealers even 3 levels lower kill mages so quickly it isn't funny... A single marauder or witch elf will tear through 3-5 wizards in less time than the bright wizard took to kill any tank. Basically this advantage is taken to extremes, as the wizard is pretty much guaranteed dead if the melee damage dealer even glances their way. Fragile is fine, but I'd like to at least finish one of my quick nukes before they shred me...

Worse, a melee damage dealer as a LOT better chance to beat a tank under ANY circumstances than a mage does. These characters pretty much fearlessly walk into combat knowing they will be both tough to kill and may die but the enemy will lose 3 to 1 or more unless the enemy comes up with a front line and healers... even then the melee will probably kill one...

So upon having my fill of the BW, I figured a tank would be fun.
Melee damage dealers were still fearsome... despite being the class designed to counter them (and the black orc most certainly does last longer) it still takes a bit to kill those melee damage dealers and they have this annoying tendency to get strings of crits and actually turn the tables. So much so that honestly, I cannot say Tanks have much of an advantage against melee damage... at least nowhere near as much as melee damage does against wizards.

Note, I am sure they will fix this as its pretty much the same as WoW was at release.
Note that AoC STILL isn't anywhere near balanced either.

As for "quake"-like... death isn't permanent, but should be fearsome enough that people avoid it. Death in WH is just like quake... you don't care... in fact in quake at least you spawn with no weapons/armor and in some cases have to run back to the battle. In Warhammer you quite literally have very little run and no penalty really at all. The "best" players had the most kills AND deaths in every scenario I ran...

Worse, there are no "memories" made in this game.
In everquest it was the first time I left grobb and got my backside handed to me by a human. (I conned everything from that time forward.) Or running through butcherblock killing dwarves for fun! (and fud!) Or killing my god. (poor inny, you were weaker than cazic)
In Lineage2 it was cresting the hill over the elven lake and the lady's music kicked in... or when facing Antharas for the first time (woah!) or when taking Aden castle from the most powerful alliance on the server. (a ton of scrubs in low-grade equipment spanking the best the game could offer!)
In Conan, it was the whole Tortage island.
Heck even WoW had a few... (most of them having to do with how I could kill someone from supposedly my side...)

In every other game I had a "woah" moment within the first few hours... thats why WH feels soulless.

I had fun... but the same kind of fun I have in quake... not an RPG.
I can see the character building to a degree... but I didn't feel a part of the world.

Note, this game most certainly will make the "quake" crowd very happy.

 

its like quake? wth? It better not be lol, i was planning on getting this game in a few days, i was expecting a hardcore mmo with a huge world and crazy pvp and dungeons and huge bosses and group raids and all that crazy good stuff that will keep me from doing my homework

 

I don't see how this game is anything like Quake besides not having a penalty for dying in Scenarios...

 

Is it possible to blacklist people? I'm getting tired of these RMT whispering me BS.

 

from some reviews, they say the game's world is just a bunch of small zones, and is very linear, like a single player rpg. Is this true? Because i like huge open worlds

 

Uh... hard to explain... it's sort of like a mix of both.

 

Lets just say I like War, but I hate quake? I don't see any similarities except for the Scenario aspect like Arquis said. The world is huge though. The zones are not small.

 

ok im gonna pick it up, just hope this game's population wont die down like what happened in age of conan

 

Didnt mean to come across as fanboiism sorry, the idiot comment was meant from my exp. in WoW and Eve of all the soloers complaining they couldn't single shot or tank people or groups of people much stronger.

The Death thing isn't much of a bother as again using WoW as a reference - you lose nothing there either except a long run to your corpse. War is a liitle bit different in that you have to wait 10 minutes for the death debuff to end but have no run to a corpse. The only MMO I've come across where death hurts is Eve.

I think the issues general feel are down to the lack of users, which is due to 2 problems: it's a new MMO, and servers are currently capped at 4500 (in the EU at least) so it feels a little empty, and therefore more like a solo game.

I have high hopes for this game since the launch has been relatively good in comparison to (Again) WoW and Eve. They already have plans for patching the major and minor niggles so people need to give it a chance - no MMO is perfect, let alone 5 days after launch.

 

Now don't get me wrong, I didn't say this is a bad game by any stretch of the imagination.

It just isn't worth the $50 for me due to to how the game feels IMHO.

It IS worth playing once to see if this is the game for you.

I had fun even though it isn't my type of game... I may even play again on my friends' account (technically his wife's) as while it is like quake to me, I like it better than quake and quite honestly is a great party-game. Four guys with laptops and some beers... great time for all. (beer far away from laptops....)

 

Or you can talk to a 'healer' npc which is always conveniently located next to a respawn point. The fee is really nothing considering you can make that back by just killing one mob. But I do agree wth one previous guy's comments that the death penalty is pretty lenient - it's not just WAR, it's in every current game now. The days of EQ1 where you have to do naked corpse runs are long gone. That's too extreme but I wouldn't mind something in the middle to give gamers that the thought of dying can be a risky and prohibitive outcome that will make them do their best to avoid - it makes for better players. Instead what we have today is one of "oh well it's just one death, I'll just heal and run back".

As for someone camparing this to Quake I find that interesting. I can see where that might come from but the pace of the fights (they're slower than in most other MMOS which are already slow compared to FPS to begin with) tend to dispute that notion somewhat. In fact if anything is more Quakelike it'll have to be AoC with their collision detection combat system and fast(er) nature of combat.

 

I have never really been one for PvP combat until this game. I really enjoy it and I believe the "Quake" reference is because you can jump into combat with no fear of loosing anything upon death (except some spare to pay the healer to remove the penalty).

Though I must say it seems most people have been favoring the Destruction side.

Bretonnia server:

Rank 15 Squig herder
Rank 10 Chosen
Rank 11 Shaman

 

Well.... I bought the game tonight, installed it, and downloaded the patches. (the patcher is slow as balls.) I know its a little early to judge, but so far.... i'm not really feeling it.

I've read a few post saying how great the graphics are, better than WoW etc. But i'm playing with settings maxed out, and not really impressed. I kinda like all the colors and odd shapes WoW uses, and i'm no WoW fanboy either.

But sometimes MMOs take a while to get used to, so i'll give it the 30 days, and see.

 

From my experience with the numerous MMO's I've played, it really takes a while to "get" them. How the gameplay is, where the story leads, how the PVP/RVR is, and most importantly, the interaction with other players. For me, the community of the game is just as important as the game itself.

 

Ya, community is everything, i played Final Fantasy XI for 3 years because of it.

 

do u need a valid cd key to go online or anything works

 

Yes, you need to purchase the game to go online.

 

For those complaining about the graphics:

http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68274

I haven't tried it yet, but it seems to have made a difference for many.

 

ok im getting the game today, i hope it is worth ditching age of conan, im just worried about how many people say the game is very linear and doesnt seem like a open world like in wow and aoc, o well ill take a chance.

any more thoughts on this game for those who have been playing more into it?

 

can you pay by PayPal? for the monthly fee instead of a credit card and game card?

 

also whats a good server to join thats populated, i was thinking the skullthrone is it? i like pvp, but is the whole game mainly pvp? i also like just grouping and doing quests instead of killing other players all day

 

It is hard to judge an MMO community after only a week or a few days. These things take months to form, even more so when you consider the fact that the servers are limited in size right now. And it may take even longer to see what kind of long-term community WAR can form... because come November, the 500-pound gorilla walks back into the room (Hello, Wrath of the Lich King), and will probably take some of the "curious" WAR denizens back to Azeroth with it.

 

I forced 4x AA, 16X AF, and Adaptive AA and while it cleans up the graphics it doesnt change them.

On paper the graphics are already way above say World of Warcraft. Higher res textures, more polygons, ect.

Its the style that sucks. Every environment I have seen is so plain, boring, open, and dull.

The comparison I made is that WoW is like a piece of art. It has a ton of appeal and style to it, while WAR is like a High Res Frying Pan... plain and boring. Forcing AA/AF only polishes the Frying Pan and make it shiny.

There is no area in that game I have seen yet that comes even close to the terran & area designs of WoW, they use the same objects over and over and have very little in the way of variation or design.