Baltimore Games Day Warhammer Videos and info!

I’ve been waiting for people to spill the beans about WAR at Baltimore’s Games Day patiently and finally found some goodies worth sharing.

This guy chronicles his adventures as he heads to Baltimore for the event and takes some pictures and plenty of great videos including part of the Q/A. Great read with some very interesting quotes:

“My first thoughts on the game was, WOW the screenshots on the website do not do this game’s graphics justice. It was very much improved from what i had seen on the website but not quite up to the level of LOTRO Dx10 on ultra high.”

“My take on the whole Order vs Destruction is that with the realm/server population caps they will have in place it will be whichever side is more skilled and has the most organized alliances/guilds will be the side that will come out victorious. There really isn’t a very large or ‘overpowering’ difference between the classes.”

“They are making the loot distrubution ‘hate’ or ‘aggro’ based so that everyone has incentive to do their supposive ‘job’ during the PQ/RvR/Renown situation in order to get rewarded.”

Marauder PvE Video (He looks at the ToK – sweet!) Looks like he is in the Dark Elf starting area and mutates his arm into a savage claw to fight some High Elves. During the video I heard him mention that he could cast while running – interesting. Overall the atmosphere of that area looks very foreboding which is perfect for DE’s!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp19ZjlJmXg[/youtube]

Dwarf Engineer RvR video that shows him placing traps, turrets, throwing grenades, shooting a rifle, and swinging some sort of weapon. Once again, another amazing atmosphere that really shows how vibrant the game can look. Lots of action.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJeXeWkv7LQ[/youtube]

The last bit of information that I found has to do with one person’s take on the Warrior Priest that raises the question of just how powerful healers are going to be in WAR. Healers are essentially being made into my dream character that can be offensive and supportive yet not be a hybrid… is it overpowered? /insert eyebrow raise here:

“It seemed way too sturdy for having a heal that insta-healed 40% of my hp. As in, I had 4 or 5 people beating on me and I ran down the squig herders and stomped them flat before I went down, sturdy. I plan to fully exploit the class on release anyway so I’m fine with that, though… I didn’t have enough time to really look at the abilities. There was an aura, heal, dmg abilities, the usual. Was kind of like playing a ret paladin in AB, frankly…”

Syp, one of my co-hosts from ChaosCast, created a comprehensive list of 50 things he found interesting. Some of the things on his list can be seen in the Q/A videos floating around out there which means a lot of rehashing of info we already know. Of those 50 tidbits, here are a couple I found interesting and new(er):

  • The top 10 renown PvP guilds get their heraldry displayed in or near the guild taverns.
  • The transportation system is still under consideration — a portal-type system vs. a flying mount system.
  • “Any PC within the past 3 years will more than likely run WAR without issues.”
  • Servers will have population caps on each side to keep them balanced between Order and Destruction.
  • There will be balance measures in RvR that if one side is getting dominated by the other side, the owned side will get help of some kind.
  • Healers are some of “the most powerful characters” due to their ability to fill multiple roles. (Confirms my thoughts above)

Most interesting of all are their multiple mentions of population balance. Let’s hope that they don’t go overboard on that one.

I’ll keep my eye out for other interesting Games Day goodies and post them in the comments section if I don’t feel they deserve their own blog entry. Please, by all means, post any links to stuff that you guys find!

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  • Updated with more info 11:20am PST. Lots of talk about population balance and a confirmation that healers are some of the most powerful characters. I find that to be really intriguing that they’re pushing the healer role to be the most played. Perhaps in anticipation of a high healer class turnover rate or just a new attempt at making healers fun.

  • Question is what the tolerance range for population imbalance will be for determining population caps. Should be some ratio like 3:2, 5:3, 5:4, etc.

  • Grr I wish they had events like this back in the UK! Paul Barnett come back to your homeland! 😛

    At least they say they’ve dispatched my pre-order codes! I shouldn’t be excited about that, but I am! Oh dear, I’m sad!

  • I’m making plans to hit up the Gamesday L.A. since it’s being held in Ontario, CA about 10 min away from me. 😀

  • Some great info there. I wonder if the Open Beta will begin when the White Lion goes in? I’ve heard tell that there are 2 more parts of this phase of beta, so that would mean a whole new phase will be beginning when the White Lion goes in… wishful thinking maybe. 🙂

  • Hmm. If I was a betting man I would say White Lion goes in before open beta. I’m not expecting “open beta” to begin until the end of summer or later, giving the game a late fall release date.

  • I guess it depends on how long the phases of this part of beta take. I’ve heard some last as short as one week while others can last a month or more depending on the focus.

    I’m hoping for a late September or early October release. I’d like to be both hitting up RvR and doing some sieges in Conan at the same time this fall. 😉

    Bet your biscuits that bith Blizzard and Mythic are playing a mighty game of release date chess right now. It’s very cool that the big gorilla is scared of what Mythic’s creating, and from all I’ve seen and heard they should be.

    WAR could be “WoW without the Suck(tm)”.

  • I’d like to hear how they are going to balance the realms because it would suck to have my friends play on the other side if they buy the game later in it’s life cycle.

  • The fall law of vapour ware is that typically software with long anticipated late fall release dates actually makes release around 2nd quarter the year after – at the earliest. It’s been a surprisingly consistent law since the earliest days of computer games – AoC being a recent example.

    It always takes longer than you think it is going to – even if you take that into account…

  • I really wouldn’t be surprised to see it slip again into 2nd quarter 2009. I’d prefer the finished product sooner rather than later of course, but given the choice between a game in AoC’s state at launch, or a game in WoW or LotRO’s state at launch, I’m prepared to wait a little while longer.

  • My take on the healing classes that i played (DoK) was that it seemed pretty overpowering being able to insta heal yourself for 1000HP due to the morale ability.
    You also had a 3 second cast time 800HP heal, an insta cast hot that healed 400HP in total over (12 seconds?)

    But once again the level of the characters was only 21 and i see it balancing out even more around lvl 40

    Happy that everyone in the community is talking about the information i was able to provide.
    Glad i could help!