Mmmmm WAR info.. *drools for a few minutes*

First off this must be said… Sexiest. Goblin. Ever. *ahem*

The big major press sites out there all participated in a conference call a couple days ago and as a result we have lots of tidbits of information to digest and, in my case, drool over.  You can read the info in its entirety  at one or two of my favorite stops, but I want to briefly point out a few interesting notes.

The game has been receiving some pretty intensive stress testing in beta, particularly in the area of RVR. Since the model for RVR was DAoC, what has the testing shown and how will that portion of the game differ from Camelot?

Paul: “WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING!!”

Jeff: “We learned a lot of great stuff from Dark Age of Camelot, as far as how to balance out realms, how to balance out population, how to balance classes, what’s fun, what’s not, what do they enjoy doing in short bursts, and what do they enjoy doing in long bursts. A lot of the stuff we are doing with Warhammer was derived from Camelot. Some of these are the “if only we could do this… when we were making Camelot, but we couldn’t”. Warhammer builds on the great foundation that Camelot put in place for us, but it also differs greatly.”

There’s just something about the WAR dev team that exudes this sense of “We have experience.  We know what we’re doing”.  Aside from Paul screaming the very fact (something I would have payed money to hear) the dev team on WAR gives me a feeling akin to driving in the car with someone you know vs. a stranger.

I have played a successful and wonderful Mythic mmorpg and now that they are developing a second I feel like I can sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.  Listening to or watching Josh Drescher is like eating comfort food.  Err, that sounds sorta weird.  *looks around*  Moving along now…

What systems are in place, if any, to prevent a winning side from continually getting stronger and the losing side only getting weaker?

There are rewards for winning but the longer a zone is under control of the winning side there will be subtle things to bring the losers up to par, slowly taking the winning sides advantage away. Some examples of how this will be done included buffs to the losing realm, increasing guards etc. Their intentions are to not punish the winning side but to give you a sense that the competition is always lively and interesting.

I have been saying that for years!  Don’t punish the winner, boost the underdog!  I feel exhilarated to know that someone is finally getting it.

Lastly I want to share one final bit of info:

Will there be Anti-Zerg mechanisms?

There is ample opportunity for large groups of people to run and around and kill each other, while there is just as much opportunity for evenly matched groups to kill each other.

Paul went on to further explain that strategy in Warhammer will be of major importance, and that large groups are no match for skilled players.

One word: Hallelujah!

Go and read the entire conference call on one of the sites I linked above.  If you’re like me you’ll take any tidbits of information and treasure them in this drought.