Warhammer Interview on PvP, Public Quests, Tactics and more.

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Over at WarCry Matt Lowery posted the 7th part of his interview with the Warhammer Online Development Team.

WarCry: Can you tell us a bit about how you can tell enemy players level compared to yours? Do you see their actual levels or are their names color coded?

WAR Community Team: Enemy players are flagged the same as enemy NPCs in relation to the power difference between them and you. Their names are color coded ranging from Grey to Purple based on the level difference.

WarCry: With collision detection in the game, how do other players affect line of sight, if at all? Can I still shoot at a player I have targeted if they are standing behind someone else? Also how does Line of Sight work? If I start to cast a spell at someone, and they move behind a large rock, will my spell still go off and hit?

WAR Community Team: Line of sight is most definitely affected by other players; if you can’t see them, you can’t cast at them. Line of sight is determined when the spell goes off, so if they’re not still in your line of site at the end of the casting timer, you won’t be able to cast on them.


WarCry: Public quests are designed for many people in the same area to participate in. Are these encounters dynamic? For example, if I am in an area with only 2 other players, will the game scale the public quest for how many are present? If not, how do you plan on adjusting these as players level are there are fewer lower level players in areas?

WAR Community Team: Public Quests are not dynamic; they’re designed for a certain range of players, both in number and in level. As for adjusting them based on population, that’s something we’ll have to look at down the road when we get to that point in the game’s life.

WarCry: Are all tactics available at the start of the game? While you might only have 1 available slot, can you choose any tactic for that slot, or do more unlock as you level? What about Morale abilities?

WAR Community Team: Tactics are arranged in groups based on level; so at level one, you’ll see all of the Tier One (level 1-9) tactics and can choose from any of them. Once you level to 10, additional ones will be unlocked for you to choose from.

WarCry: We know there are many different slots to equip armor and such, how many of these are visible on the character? IE, we know different armors have different looks, if I put on a pair of gloves, are those visible? Or a helm?

WAR Community Team: Yes, all of the major armor slots are visible on the character: torso, pants, gloves, cloak, helm, even the belt! 

I like how this interview asked really good questions.  The one that stood out to me the most was the collision detection and line of site.  It’s going to be very interesting to see just how difficult it will be to land a spell on an enemy when you have not only your team blocking you but the enemy team as well.  This could make for an interesting task if as a healer I have to make sure Orc1 isn’t blocking Orc2 who needs the heals.  I definitely think it’s worth asking how healing will be affected and whether or not your team blocks your spells.

Having the enemies presented in the “color con” system seems like a great idea to me.  It will establish just how much of a threat they are to you.  If red in Warhammer is a difficult fight, then you know if an enemy cons red he won’t be easy.  Good choice!

Also, looking at the last question it seems that cloaks will in fact be in the game.  I’ve never seen it clarified one way or another and now it seems that we know Warhammer will have cloaks.

  • Here’s a great link that might have some answers to your questions.

    http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/104586522/p1/

    According to some there is a little bit of leeway in casting while moving. There seems to be momentum in the game where if you’re running you don’t come to an immediate stop once you let go of the forward movement key. You can begin casting before you come to a complete stop.

    I doubt very much that you can move while casting. The system for interrupts pushes back the cast bar giving you a longer cast time (similar to WoW and Lotro).

    I would really like to find a definite yes or no from a Mythic Dev though before being able to say for certain.

  • I like Vanguard’s system but I never tried it on the PvP server. It seems like this may help casters deal somewhat with the LOS issues they may be facing. Maybe, maybe not.