The Warhammer Online Devchat over at Warcry was tonight and once again I have felt the need to attend so that I don’t miss out on something new and exciting. I can’t help it; the urge to stay in the know consumes me! Tonight’s Dev chat, staying true to form, was mostly repeats of the stuff we already know. However, there were a few gems that stood out from the rest. As usual I have cleaned up the messy irc chats for all of your viewing pleasure and will briefly highlight the questions I feel were the best.

Side note: For the love of whatever god you worship… please, I beg of you, someone break Adam Gershowitz’s return key.

Zvyr: Will there be attainable stat caps like there were in DAoC?

[WAR]Gersh: Currently we don’t have a stat Hard Cap. The way our stats are designed is every stat is a “Tug of War” with another stat. For example the amount of extra damage bonused to melee attack is a direct comparison between your Str and your opponents toughness. so if your opponent is too tough then no bonus for you that being said there is a soft cap of diminishing returns even against the weakest opponent strength will only take you so far.

Pixystix: Being a former DaoC and Ultima online player, I have a question in How important will gear be? In WoW gear was 90% of the game, which took away the fun of PvPing sometimes when it was literally impossible to kill someone who had a significant gear advantage to you?

[WAR]Gersh: in WAR gear will matter. Weapon DPS adds to Melee Character attacks, and a solid 40% or so of a player’s stats is from Gear. That being said we’ve designed the loot system and the stat system to allow for a nice broad competitive range. So two players of similar level and similar skill can always compete regardless of gear.. Of course the better geared player will have an advantage but there are ways around that, such as choosing the right tactics.

{Arenammo}leobassist: How important the PvE content will be to the PvP/RvR content, Will the best itens, money be in the PvE, or it will only be a EXTRA to the game experience?

[WAR]Wheeler: The best gear is gained via RvR actions, but there is a variety of ways to gather items.

[WAR]Gersh: High end PvE content will net you some sweet loot but we’re also matching those rewards in RvR as well. Ultimately like Brian said the very best gear will come from Capitol City events which is primarily RvR but does have some PvE components as well.

[WAR]Josh: The question’s a TAD misleading, as there will be really great, high-level stuff available from both PvE AND RvR combat. You won’t be able to get all of the absolutely best stuff in the game without playing through both parts of the world. With that said, the ultimate, super-awesome items will come from City Siege and capture. Just remember that invading an enemy city opens up new PvE content as well, so it really is a synergy of the two.

First things first. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Stop right now. I don’t wan’t to hear it, read it, or whatever. Wtf am I talking about? Lua and the whole UI mod thing! It’s World of Warcraft all over again. You’re killing me here guys. Leave the UI like DAOC’s or something basic. Just say no to UI Mods!

The stat “tug o’ war” sounds interesting and I’m very pleased by the confirmation that PvP will play the greatest roll in gearing up high levels. A combination of PvE and PvP to get fantastic gear could actually work out very nicely. I’m pleased with that.

Overall it was a good Devchat was a good one, although it ended sorta weird. When asked what they favorite class was the dev team broke out into some odd discussion and then began spamming and stuff… yeah.. then they left… I’m just as confused as you probably are but hey, I would go insane in their position too. *walks away slowly*

You can read the entire Dev Chat if you read (more…)