[singlepic=35,320,181,,right]This month’s Warhammer Online Newsletter is here! Ahhh, it’s like a breath of fresh air. This month a large focus of the information was aimed directly at WAR’s “Living guild system” and several mechanics and features surrounding guilds. As always I want to give you guys the links to the newsletter information and a brief one or two sentences on each. After that I’m going to go into a bit more detail on why the guild system in WAR looks to be the best implementation of guilds ever.
- Paul’s Video Blogs for April 2008 – Standard Paul Barnett. Paul’s never ending excitement is always a site to see.
- Scenarios 101 – Grovod Caverns and Reikland Hills – Take note here Funcom. These are how “mini-games” should be designed. Their design is complex yet the goal remains to simply capture the flag or hold the point. The subtle complexities really add a level of depth and immersion. I’m actually looking forward to them. (Never though I would say that about a CTF/King of the Hill game)
- Eataine Overview – Another zone for Elves… *hiss*
- Beta Journal – /jealous. Jerks and their beta.
- Grab Bag – I’ll be touching on some of this more later but it’s got a lot of details on guilds. Most of it is standard mmorpg guild stuff but it’s interesting.
- Guild Podcast – The best partof this newsletter. See below.
I want to expand upon why I feel that guilds in WAR will truly be better and more important to the game itself than they have been in any other mmorpg. First off, being part of a guild gives you access to the coolest part of the game: Claiming keeps! Even though anyone can contribute and attack keeps, only guilds can claim them. That’s really important to remember here. The entire realm (Order or Destruction) works together to siege keeps for their side but it’s the guilds that then move in and claim control of them and in doing so they claim partial responsibility for their wellbeing. If my guild helps to take a keep and then we claim it, then it’s our assumed responsibility to provide protection for that keep (At all times. There are no scheduled attacks in this game.)
“Guilds in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning aren’t just given a group of tools to help them organize. They are actually given strategic benefits for cooperating and working together on the battlefield.” – Josh Drescher
The Living Guild System is the name Mythic has given to their guild mechanics and set of features — I suppose it was necessary to give it a name once it became more than just a basic system (shrug). This “living” system allows guilds to advance much in the way players do. Guilds grow and advance as their members advance and experience things throughout the game world. Undoubtedly the Tome of Knowledge will come into play here and really provide a lot of potential accomplishments. EQ2 has a similar system in that their guilds level up, but the features of the Living Guild System stretch further than simple levels and advancement.
One example, Guilds have banners! Banners are the symbol of your guild and can be carried into combat by one member designated the “standard bearer”. These banners can have trophies attached to them and really signify a guild’s accomplishment and pressence on the battlefield. Banners buff members’ morale and other abilities that the standard bearer can use in battle. These banners can also be stolen. I have a feeling that being in a guild in WAR will be unlike anything we’ve experienced yet in a mmorpg.
Watch the video and read the grab bag. This guild system sounds really great.
Also check out the new screenshots (they look amazing) and the coverage from NY ComicCon.
Little left to doubt the greatness that is Warhammer Online:Age of Reckoning! In desperate need of hands-on time!
Can’t wait to my first mexican standoff zerg style with banners flying high!
‘Chaaaaarge Comrades!’ the flagbearer yells! He activates the -25% Dmg for 30sec. Flagbearer Skill (I suppose such a thing does exist). And so ends the mexican standoff and the battlefrenzy beginns!
WHAAAAAAGH!
After researching all the info that is currently available on this game, I preordered it today. Looking forward to all the neat features.
wow those screenshots look much better than anythig we have seen before from WAR. Too bad this game’s style looks too much like WoW, I’m getting kind of sick of it.
Looks like another version of wow with the same cartoon graphics and gameplay. That said I did like the RvR in dark age of camelot but it does not make a game.
I can’t read any of that stuff at work (stupid filters), do they mention alliances? My guild in DAoC was too small to take keeps, but we eventually joined an alliance and helped them capture keeps. Not as much glory as capturing them ourselves, but still satisfying.
Also, to Spooky and John, it would be more correct to say WoW looks like Warhammer as far as style and art goes, considering Warhammer Online looks like the miniatures game, and Warhammer Fantasy Battle predates WoW by several decades.
so keen now that we are talking about WAR i was wondering, what race are u gunna go with?
myself being a longtime table top warhammer player and current holder of a 5000+ point greenskin army, i am looking forward to being the infamous Black Orc. i am pretty sure that after the first exantion they will probably release the wood elf race and i will roll one of those too. but the orc is closest to my heart though. i have always felt like an outcast and i guess i relate to the orcs. puss, i cant really use the name “bigredjeff” if im a stunty can i?
one more thing. how can anyone compare the art work of WAR to the art work of WoW? i dont get it.
@John: Similar yet very, very different. Looking at stills really doesn’t do the style justice. WAR’s graphics have a lot more detail and are less “cartoony” than they appear at first glance. They feel more like DAOC’s did. Heck, even EQ looks cartoony compared to the “realism” approach of AoC, Vanguard, and EQ2. I look at them at the last thing that comes to mind is WoW. (And as Graktar said, Warhammer had the art style/direction well before Warcraft!)
@Graktar: Yep, the Grab bag mentioned alliances. Here’s the info:
@Bigredjeff: Greenskin all the way. Graev and I will be playing Goblins. I have been a fan of Greenskins for so many years now. I’ll be getting my waagh on as a Goblin Shaman.
well well well. we should get on the same server then. would be fun to get into an epic rvr battle, win and be able to read about it here lol
yeah! I’m looking forward to the glorious recounting of epic battles. Just a few more months of waiting.. *goes crazy*
Heh… great to see you talking about WAR once more! And yeah, what a cool month for guild info goodness. I liked guilds leveling up in LOTRO, and the tools that Mythic is giving them just sound 100% better than anything we’re seeing in WoW these days. Excelsior!
My main concern is the bonuses with claiming a keep for your guild. It’s going to be terrible and DRAMA filled if players from the same faction fight with each other over who gets to claim a guild when they should just be focused on beating the other side.
With that said, this totally rocks. If Mythic wasn’t owned by EA, I’d totally buy stock in it.
@DM: In all the years I played DAOC there was never any drama surrounding who got to own the keeps. It just never happened… or I was completely oblivious to it. I’m going with the former because I was in a prominent RvR guild and our Alliance was the top RvR ranking alliance on the server. RvR just breeds teamwork.
Just fyi, EVE Online’s “guild” and alliance system is far more meaningful and important than either AoC or WAR promises to be. These fantasy MMO’s are still catching up.
[…] Keen checks back into the WAR scene (forget AoC, man!) with his thoughts on the April Newsletter. […]